This is Gavin Newsom - April 30, 2026


The Briefing： They Were Always Coming For Your Right To Vote With Attorney General Eric Holder


Episode Stats


Length

18 minutes

Words per minute

171.64

Word count

3,118

Sentence count

203

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Eric Holder is the first African-American to serve as U.S. Attorney General and first woman to serve in that position. He is also the first Black man elected to the Supreme Court by a major political party to win a majority in the country s highest court.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.940 This is Gavin Newsom.
00:00:03.700 And this is Eric Holder.
00:00:07.820 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:00:10.700 Guaranteed human.
00:00:12.380 Hey, what's good, y'all?
00:00:13.720 You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host, Keir Gaines.
00:00:17.780 This space is about Black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere,
00:00:24.640 but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing.
00:00:27.440 How many men carry a suit of armor?
00:00:30.400 It signals to the world that you're not to be played with.
00:00:32.500 And just because you have the capability, that does not mean that you need to.
00:00:37.380 Listen to Learn the Hard Way on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:00:43.680 In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax.
00:00:50.960 You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Owens, correct?
00:00:54.500 I doctored the test once.
00:00:55.800 It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern.
00:01:00.820 Two more men who'd been through the same thing.
00:01:03.440 Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini.
00:01:05.440 My mind was blown.
00:01:07.080 I'm Stephanie Young.
00:01:08.520 This is Love Trapped.
00:01:09.840 Laura, Scottsdale Police.
00:01:11.680 As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences.
00:01:16.400 Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 0.52
00:01:21.540 when a group of women discover they've all dated the same prolific con artist
00:01:27.800 they take matters into their own hands i vowed i will be his last target he is not going to get
00:01:35.120 away with this he's going to get what he deserves we always say that trust your girlfriends
00:01:40.840 listen to the girlfriends trust me babe on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you
00:01:48.460 get your podcasts.
00:01:54.220 A win is a win.
00:01:55.480 A win is a win.
00:01:56.640 I don't care what y'all say.
00:01:58.460 Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor IV.
00:02:01.160 You might have seen the skits,
00:02:02.780 my basketball and college football journey,
00:02:04.520 or my career in sports media.
00:02:06.540 Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement
00:02:08.220 to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.
00:02:10.940 This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations
00:02:13.400 with athletes, creators, and voices
00:02:15.500 that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.
00:02:18.360 So let's get to it.
00:02:19.680 Listen to The Clifford Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:02:24.520 And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.
00:02:29.520 He and I sat down and talked about, all right, let's kind of look back and see what is it that we didn't accomplish
00:02:36.960 and what were the reasons why we were not as successful as we might have been.
00:02:41.080 And we looked at a variety of things and, you know, we kind of tried to figure out, well, why, why, why?
00:02:45.140 And we really came to the conclusion that gerrymandering was a problem that prevented him from getting in full his agenda, though he had significant accomplishments.
00:02:56.180 And as we looked more, we said, you know, and a lot of the stuff that's coming out of the states is unpopular and nevertheless gets passed.
00:03:03.820 And that was also as a result of gerrymandering in state legislatures.
00:03:07.980 And so we said, all right, let's go after that problem.
00:03:10.480 And so we formed up the National Democratic Redistricting Committee in January of 2017.
00:03:15.140 to really promote fairness in the redistricting process.
00:03:19.560 Republicans had put together, through a thing called Project Red Map in 2011,
00:03:26.200 gerrymanders in a whole variety of states that have endured,
00:03:29.460 endured through the course of that whole decade,
00:03:31.880 and put in place measures at the state level that people didn't like.
00:03:36.880 But nevertheless, Republicans did it and didn't suffer any political consequence because of the gerrymanders.
00:03:42.740 And then we had a gerrymandered House of Representatives. And if you look, when we started out, Democrats had to overperform by about 22 percent in order to get to 50-50 in the House of Representatives as a result of what we've done.
00:03:56.120 That number is now just about one and a half percent, something like that. We can actually, you know, actually handle that.
00:04:01.620 And so we've promoted fairness. And that is fairness has almost been like a weapon for us. We use that word. People like the idea that citizens ought to choose who their representatives are as opposed to politicians picking their voters. And so that's why we have been engaged in this in this fight.
00:04:19.840 Mr. Attorney General, so much of what you tried to achieve and pursue in 2017 had a little bit of its origin story and what happened with the Shelby County decision in the Supreme Court, a 5-4 decision in 2013. Remind everybody what happened at the Supreme Court in 2013.
00:04:38.960 Okay. 2013, the Supreme Court, as you said, in a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice Roberts writing for the majority, and he stated very famously in his majority opinion that America has changed.
00:04:52.820 And as a result, they used that as the basis to take from the Justice Department the ability that it had to pre-clear changes that states wanted to make when it came to all kinds of electoral things, whether it was how lines were drawn with regard to certain districts where polling places should be opened or closed, where voter purges should be allowed.
00:05:18.460 took away from the Justice Department the ability to challenge states when they tried to do these
00:05:23.980 things. And that has had a really negative impact. We have seen poll closures all around the country.
00:05:30.400 It's one of the reasons why you see long lines in certain states. We've seen voter purges that
00:05:35.140 disproportionately occur in communities of color, in places where Democrats are perceived to live.
00:05:42.560 A whole range of things has happened since the Shelby County case. It's taken the Justice
00:05:47.080 Department, not off the field, but certainly taking away from the Justice Department a lot
00:05:51.260 of the tools that it once had. And so in an effort to sort of push back, you've been a big
00:05:58.000 part of your organization, is also highlighting some of those purges as it relates to the voting
00:06:03.060 rolls, highlighting some of what is just overt voter suppression activities as it relates to
00:06:09.480 reducing the number of polling options in places. And it led to a lot of victories. And I think
00:06:15.920 what I'd love to highlight is not just the problem, but some of your success in terms of
00:06:21.580 what your organization has been able to achieve. And I want to get back to Prop 50. I want to get
00:06:25.640 back to what's happening, not just in Texas, but across this country at this moment. But talk to
00:06:29.880 me a little bit about what you were able to achieve with the organization in 2018, 19, 20,
00:06:36.020 over the course of the last decade or so. Yeah. I mean, you know, if you look at the work that
00:06:40.960 we have done since 2017 by, you know, focusing, using a state-based strategy, different strategy,
00:06:48.040 you know, depending on the state, by supporting candidates who would stand for fairness,
00:06:52.920 by challenging laws that were put in place or procedures that were being used in a variety
00:06:57.740 of states, by raising the consciousness of people about the importance of fair redistricting,
00:07:03.580 by standing for independent commissions and trying to get those in states wherever we could.
00:07:08.380 It's interesting. Wherever we tried to get an independent commission, whether it was a red state or a blue state, people overwhelmingly supported them. We got them in Missouri. We got them in Utah. And then Republican legislatures did things to the efforts that we had. But the people always supported them.
00:07:25.120 And so that's what we have done, use those different tools. And as a result, we ended up with maps in 2024 that a lot of analysts, as well as the New York Times, produced the fairest maps in generations.
00:07:39.540 Now, fairest, but not totally fair. There are still states that are still gerrymandered. If you look at Texas, if you look at Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, there are still places that are still gerrymandered and are still a focus of our work.
00:07:56.160 And a big part of just the gerrymandering, and just to sort of unpack this a little bit more, the racial dimensions cannot be understated, or at least even overstated.
00:08:06.480 I mean, so the impacts, the Black community, Hispanic community, talk a little bit more about how that manifests in many of these different states.
00:08:14.840 That's a really important point. 0.97
00:08:17.540 This gerrymandering is done on the backs of people of color.
00:08:22.280 And one only has to look at what's going on in Texas now. 0.97
00:08:26.160 They get there. They think five seats. I think they're being a little optimistic, but they get whatever it is they get out of this this gerrymandering that they're doing at the expense of people of color in largely urban areas, largely Hispanic, but African-Americans, you know, as well.
00:08:45.740 We see them, you know, breaking up districts in Austin, Texas and San Antonio and drawing these really weird lines so that you really decrease, dilute the power, the electoral power that communities of color have in Texas. 0.52
00:09:01.220 Now, they'll try to say this is only partisan. These are only partisan things that we have done as if that somehow makes it better. 0.86
00:09:08.200 You know, we're not we're not racist. We're just doing things, you know, that are inconsistent with our sense of who we are and consistent with our Constitution.
00:09:16.100 But it's only on a partisan basis. But if you look, it always almost always comes down to making it more difficult for people of color to vote and then taking away from people of color, communities of color, the political power that they've long sought and have tried to hold on to. 0.73
00:09:36.240 So California is one of those states with an independent redistricting commission. It was a commission that when I was mayor, there was an effort to repeal it that I publicly opposed because Blanc supported the idea of independent redistricting.
00:09:49.620 And it's a point of pride that this state has been one of the leaders. What happened, however, in Texas changed the equation. And I'm curious just from your prism and your perspective as a champion of independent redistricting as well.
00:10:04.680 What does Texas represent to you? And first, if I could just unpack a deeper question. Why do you think President Trump made the phone call to Greg Abbott? Why do you think he even pursued this mid-decade redistricting strategy in the first place?
00:10:23.300 Well, before he picked up the phone, he looked at his desk, picked up some papers that said, these are your polling numbers, Mr. President. And he made the determination that unless we cheat, unless we come up with more safe Republican seats, we're in real danger of losing our majority in the House of Representatives.
00:10:42.200 And that would really establish a really huge obstacle to doing the kinds of radical things that they have done in the first eight months and want to continue to do over the course of the next three years or so.
00:10:55.660 And I think that's the thing that generated the call from the president to the governor in Texas.
00:11:03.080 It's an interesting thing. You know, when he called, when the president called those folks in Georgia and said, I need 11,780 votes when it came to the 2020 election, Republicans in Georgia, you know, Secretary of State Raffensperger, a person who I don't agree with on a whole bunch of stuff, you know, they at least had the guts to say, no, we're not going to do that.
00:11:21.680 Called Greg Abbott and he expressed some, you know, little concern about it at the beginning, but at the end of the day, did exactly what it is that, you know, the president asked him to do.
00:11:31.880 You know, we've always thought of the California Independent Commission as the gold standard.
00:11:36.360 It's something that as I've campaigned around the country for fairness, I've always pointed to California.
00:11:41.680 And I think the system in California is a great one.
00:11:44.660 But I think the determination that you made and other Democrats in California was exactly the right one, given what they did in Texas and what they're doing in other states as well.
00:11:54.320 We couldn't simply disarm.
00:11:56.900 We had to respond to that.
00:11:58.860 And what I've said, you know, I thought about this long and hard before I said, you know, this is something I think we ought to do because I've been fighting.
00:12:06.060 I've been fighting against gerrymandering, either by Democrats or Republicans.
00:12:10.720 But I think that what's happening in California makes a great deal of sense.
00:12:17.280 It is something that kind of meets this three part test of mine.
00:12:20.640 It's got to be responsive. And so it's certainly responsive to that which happened in Texas.
00:12:24.300 It's got to be responsible. Didn't go crazy. Just came up with a way in which you try to come up with additional seats.
00:12:30.940 And it's got to be temporary. You know, I want to get back to this whole fight for fairness and the way in which it's crafted in California.
00:12:38.500 In addition to having the people ultimately vote on it, which is not what happened in Texas, it only will exist until after the next census.
00:12:46.780 No, and I appreciate this. And so your evolution was mine as well, as someone that believes in the principle of independent redistricting as well.
00:12:54.300 So it wasn't I was an immediate response, frankly, was in response to outreach by legislative leaders in Texas that said, well, hey, California, you know, have our back.
00:13:06.000 And we thought it may be a rhetorical play just to support them and say, we're watching, we're paying attention.
00:13:11.580 But realizing the consequences of these five seats and how that can tip the balance and rig the next election in the 2026, we were able to fashion a process that, as you say, is temporary, transparent and democratic.
00:13:26.020 It's the only maps that are now being presented to the voters themselves.
00:13:30.800 They will decide for themselves in the most transparent way and in a temporary way that ends, as you suggest, after the 28, 8 and 30 and into the 32 census will revert back to its original form again, only in response to Texas.
00:13:47.400 But I want to ask you to respond. It's not just Texas, is it, Mr.
00:13:51.340 attorney general. We're seeing this in Missouri just this week. You're seeing activity in Indiana,
00:13:57.920 conversations that are happening in Florida. There's different conditions and criteria in
00:14:03.100 Ohio and Utah. Maybe you can give us a lay of the land more broadly. Yeah, I mean, you hit just about
00:14:08.880 all the states where this is still being considered. Texas has already done it. Missouri has already
00:14:13.580 done it. But those other states are certainly considering it. And Ohio has got to redraw their
00:14:19.560 maps because of a constitutional provision there. But the question is, what are Ohio Republicans
00:14:23.940 going to do? There is, within the Ohio Constitution, a prohibition against partisan
00:14:29.740 gerrymandering. So we'll see what they do in Ohio. What are they going to do in Kansas? What
00:14:34.320 are they going to do in Florida? There's a whole range of other states where they've made the
00:14:38.020 determination that they're going to really kind of cheat. And that's what it is. You can talk
00:14:42.060 about a whole bunch of different things. It's cheating. They're going to cheat to try to hold
00:14:45.660 on to the majority that they have in the House of Representatives. And it really comes on the
00:14:50.840 basis of fear. They're afraid of the people who they say they want to represent. They're afraid
00:14:56.360 of the legislative agenda that they have tried to put in place. They're afraid of the administrative
00:15:02.080 things that they have done. They're afraid to be held accountable for, you know, taking a whole
00:15:07.040 bunch of good people and a whole variety of government agencies around the country and
00:15:11.300 simply told them, you know, get out of here. You're fired. They're afraid of trying to defend
00:15:16.760 that which Elon Musk and his doge bros did. It's all a political fear that is driving what it is
00:15:25.600 that they're doing. And it's fundamentally un-American and it's unpatriotic. You know,
00:15:31.140 it's cheating, but it also goes against that which we do and which makes, I think, this nation
00:15:37.580 exceptional. We trust the people to make determinations about policy and the direction
00:15:42.440 of the nation. And they want to cut the people out of the process. 0.95
00:16:07.580 signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability,
00:16:12.040 that does not mean that you need to. Listen and learn the hard way on the iHeartRadio app,
00:16:17.500 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused
00:16:24.360 of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test
00:16:30.060 twice, Ms. Ellis, correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives
00:16:35.280 to uncover a disturbing pattern.
00:16:38.240 Two more men who'd been through the same thing.
00:16:40.500 Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini.
00:16:42.500 My mind was blown.
00:16:44.160 I'm Stephanie Young.
00:16:45.580 This is Love Trapped.
00:16:46.920 Laura, Scottsdale Police.
00:16:48.760 As the season continues,
00:16:50.340 Laura Owens finally faces consequences.
00:16:53.460 Listen to Love Trapped podcast
00:16:54.640 on the iHeartRadio app,
00:16:56.260 Apple Podcasts,
00:16:57.200 or wherever you get your podcasts. 1.00
00:17:00.120 When a group of women discover
00:17:01.980 they've all dated the same prolific con artist,
00:17:05.280 They take matters into their own hands.
00:17:08.500 I vowed I will be his last target.
00:17:11.060 He is not going to get away with this.
00:17:13.160 He's going to get what he deserves.
00:17:15.120 We always say that.
00:17:16.820 Trust your girlfriends. 0.86
00:17:19.460 Listen to The Girlfriends.
00:17:21.300 Trust me, babe.
00:17:22.160 On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:17:31.260 A win is a win.
00:17:32.540 A win is a win.
00:17:33.620 I don't care what y'all say.
00:17:35.280 Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor IV.
00:17:38.300 You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media.
00:17:43.620 Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.
00:17:48.020 This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.
00:17:55.420 So let's get to it.
00:17:56.680 Listen to The Clifford Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
00:18:01.200 And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok.
00:18:06.640 This is an iHeart Podcast.
00:18:09.060 Guaranteed human.