The Signorile Report

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

State Senator Mallory McMorrow of Michigan last week dropped a bomb on the GOP’s vicious attacks on Democrats as “groomers” and sexual predators because they stand up against bills targeting minorities.

Her floor speech then went viral. And she provided a blueprint for Democrats moving into the midterms and energized progressives all across the country.

In an interview on my SiriusXM program days later, McMorrow explained that her response didn’t actually begin with her righteous anger over a fundraising email pitch by Republican senator Lana Theis that targeted McMorrow by name as a “groomer,” as has been reported.

It really started she said, a week prior, when Theis gave an eyebrow-raising prayer at the start of the Senate’s session. An invocation isn’t out of the ordinary, McMorrow pointed out — it “generally is something to set the tone” of the work legislators will do together. But what struck McMorrow as ugly was the content of the prayer this time.

She used a prayer to plead with God for protection because our children are under attack from dark forces that would have them hear and know and see things against their parents will. And it was such a thinly-veiled replica of language like Florida’s “Don’t say gay” bill that I walked out with few of my other colleagues.

Cut to a week later, she decided to single me out in a fundraising email and accuse me of grooming children, kindergarteners, supporting pedophilia and sexualization of children, and making eight-year-olds feel like they were responsible for slavery. And it was just gut-wrenching to see that.

McMorrow had a lot to say in our interview, both about how Republicans are demonizing Democrats and how Democrats need to respond. This week the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising email written by McMorrow — and it was their most successful pitch of the year.

McMorrow is a young leader, a suburban mom who embraces her faith and is not afraid of the GOP attacks, as so many Democrats appear to be. She said the Republican strategy to attack teachers, LGBTQ people, the teaching of history on racism in schools and to demonize all Democrats are all thing to which Democrats must forcefully respond.

It’s no longer a fringe idea or a conspiracy theory. It’s real. It’s a real strategy being used by one of our major political parties in this country….Call out the nonsense. Because the issues the Republicans are putting forward are non-issues. They’re made up. They’re making up issues to scare and fearmonger and scapegoat to avoid taking on any real issues. Because putting forth policy in government is really hard.

Listen in to the full interview, and let me know your thoughts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

Jeff from Atlanta, clearly a card-carrying Trumpist, called my SiriusXM show as we were discussing the McCarthy tapes last week, which revealed the minority leader lied and had supported Donald Trump resigning.

Let’s just say Jeff was the brightest bulb among the MAGA minions.

Calling McCarthy a RINO (Republican in name only), he tried to change the subject to Hunter Biden — but of course.

I had to to shut that down quickly, as well as his name-calling of Nancy Pelosi.

Getting him back on who will be House Speaker if Republicans win, and if McCarthy will be challenged, I asked him about the possible candidates, throwing out a few names after he at first couldn’t name any.

Jeff said Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon cultist who testified last week that she couldn’t remember anything surrounding January 6th, would be “fantastic.”

Yes, the same Marjorie Taylor Greene who lied on the stand last week, saying she thought Black Lives Matter or Antifa were breaking into the Capitol on January 6th but was revealed today to have texted Trump’s chief of staff on that day, panicked and trying to get Trump to “calm down people” among his supporters who were attacking the Capitol.

Matt Gaetz? “Sure!” exclaimed.

Madison Cawthorn. “Who? I’m not familiar with him.”

Any other candidates? [Lauren] Boebert would be fine.”

Jeff then tried to change the subject to Black Lives Matter and where the “investigations” were of that group. I had to explain that there’s no investigation of any other group trying to overthrow the government because only those who attacked the Capitol on January 6th have tried to overturn the election and the government.

Soon, I had to just let him go but told Jeff I did appreciate the “humorous” conversation.

This one just completely revealed the caliber of idiocy we’re dealing with on the right, and I’m glad I allowed him to just undo himself.

Let me know your thoughts!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

A caller to my SiriusXM show, Kevin from Long Island, New York, argued that I wasn’t telling the truth when I said a teacher couldn’t discuss his husband, or a student, couldn’t talk about being “gay” or “trans” under Florida’s and other states’ “don’t say gay” bills.

This is a major talking of those who promote the bills — and they’re lying because they want to have it both ways and confuse people. Kevin might be the kind of person they’re trying to confuse. He claimed he is not in favor of the bill, and “disagrees” with it, and that it’s an example the “government imposing on teachers.”

He then claimed that, nonetheless, he read the bill and that wouldn’t prohibit a student, for example, to say he has two gay fathers, an example I’d used on the show.

But this is just parroting the claims by the sponsors of the bill who say it wasn’t about that, and that the bill reads there should be no “instruction” about sexual orientation or gender identity. That term “instruction” makes it sound like the bill is only banning discussion of sexual activity.

But in fact, when one Republican in the Florida legislature tried to change the bill to simply prohibit discussion of of sexual activity, the sponsors opposed it:

In Florida, State Senator Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg thought he had found a compromise: He tried to amend the education-related legislation to effectively ban sex education through third grade without singling out L.G.B.T.Q. people. When Republicans voted down the amendment, Mr. Brandes said, he became convinced that the legislation was meant to “impact” the L.G.B.T.Q. community and create a political wedge.

The bill is not only purposely vaguely worded in the body of the bill, but it’s specifically worded in the preamble to ban “discussion” of sexual orientation and gender identity — which would clearly ban talking about being gay or trans or talking about family members who are. Surely no teacher is going to take a chance when the bill allows for lawsuits if parents believe they’ve crossed the line:

In its preamble, the bill’s authors write that their aim is to prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity.” But later, the actual bill states that “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur”….

…”Well, what’s the scope of that term called ‘instruction?’” [University of Miami Law School Professor [Charlton] Copeland said. “And the preamble seems to have a conception of what is prohibited that is much broader when we might think of a cramped conception of ‘instruction.’”

When I tried to explain this to Kevin from Long Island, he seemed adamant that I was wrong. And then he said he was opposed to teaching “partisan” ideas to students, which I took as an insult — and told him so — since being gay or trans isn’t “partisan.”

That made me believe he wasn’t really someone who is opposed to the bill, and I told him I thought he was spouting b******t. But whatever the case, this is the confusion that proponents are trying to create, sucking people in on their “parents rights” ruse.

Listen in and let me know your thoughts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

Jonathan from Texas called my SiriusXM show to express shock when I said the majority of Americans don’t support Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill and do support teaching children in elementary school about sexual orientation and gender identity.

“Where did you get that? How is that even possible?” he asked.

I then read him just one among several polls, an ABC News poll showing 62% of Americans are opposed to the bill, when the question is is asked clearly.

Jonathan then claimed to be a teacher and said even in his city of “liberal Austin” he couldn’t believe that was true, and that discussing these issues was “confusing kids.”

I then raised several hypotheticals about kids who have gay parents, and how they would talk in school about their families. He kind of just stammered along — until he just hung up.

Guess he couldn’t have an actual conversation about it. I also wonder if he was really a teacher.

Let me know your thoughts!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

Don from Los Angeles called in to my SiriusXM show to tell me that it was a “waste of time” to call for the impeachment of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas because Republicans would never allow it.

I agreed, but said that didn’t make it a waste of time to focus on it. In fact, I said, it is a “gold mine” for Democrats to use against the GOP. This is the most corrupt thing we have seen with regard to the Supreme Court, and yes, we need to tie Republicans to it.

Anyway, it got pretty heated — or rather, I should say I got pretty heated — because it outraged me so much that he suggested we should just dismiss this. If it were a liberal justice whose was texting the president’s chief of staff to overturn an election, the GOP would be going ballistic.

Some will say I had little patience here — and the truth is, I didn’t.

Listen in and let me know your thoughts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber for just $5 a month or $50 annually, and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

This is part of a series focusing on Democratic candidates Im interviewing on my SiriusXM show as Democrats fight to keep the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms.

Jamie McLoed-Skinner is exactly what Oregon’s 5th Congressional District needs. And in the newly-redrawn district she has a great shot at beating incumbent Democrat Kurt Schrader.

Schrader has been one of the nine or 10 so-called “moderates” among House Democrats. But I call them obstructionists because there’s nothing moderate about what they’ve done in attempting to block President Biden’s agenda. Schrader voted against the president’s coronavirus relief bill — one of only two Democrats who voted no — and voted against reduced drug prices via Medicare, as he’s in the pocket of Big Pharma, taking over $140,000 from drug companies.

Back in January of 2021, Schrader called Donald Trump’s “rushed impeachment” after January 6th a “lynching,” and several political strategists dumped him over the remark (though he did ultimately vote to impeach.)

Jamie McLeod-Skinner is an elected Jefferson County Education Service District board member who ran for Oregon secretary of state in 2020. The newly-redrawn 5th district now includes the county where she’s one every time she’s been on the ballot. Schrader has underperformed in his races, and the new district bodes worse for him in running against a Republican.

McLeod-Skinner haw the endorsement of former Oregon governor Barbara Roberts, and other Democratic leaders who previously endorsed Schrader. This month she also received an endorsement of Senator Elizabeth Warren.

McLoed-Skinner spoke with me about her background, and the issues she’s focused on, including education, climate change, the attacks on American democracy, abortion rights, student debt and affordable housing. An open lesbian, she is committed to equality for all and has been working in the community throughout the district on a wide variety of issues.

McLoed-Skinner also took on Schrader’s obstructionism as well as why she’s well-placed to win the primary in the newly-redrawn district and will galvanize the base of the Democratic Party in the general election.

Listen in to what Jamie McLoed-Skinner had to say, and please check out her website where you can read more about her and help her out.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber for just $5 a month or $50 annually, and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

This is part of a series focusing on Democratic candidates Im interviewing on my SiriusXM show as Democrats fight to keep the House and Senate in the 2022 midterms.

Missouri’s GOP Senator Roy Blunt is retiring. And Democratic candidate Lucas Kunce, a Marine veteran running as a populist, is electrifying voters, taking on corporate greed and corruption.

The attorney and Director of National Security at the American Economic Liberties Project, whose mission it fighting against corporate monopolies and economic inequality, is making Republicans in Missouri nervous, particularly as their own state party, like that of the national GOP, continues to fracture amid Donald Trump’s demands of full allegiance. Kunce has raised more money than any of the Republicans vying for the open U.S. Senate seat. A Democratic win would be a big upset and surely help Democrats retain the Senate.

A recent GOP poll showed Kunce within 4 points of beating former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, who announced he’s running for the open seat. Greitens resigned as governor in 2018 while facing criminal corruption charges and accusations that he was trying to blackmail a woman with whom he had a sexual affair, an allegation that an investigatory committee in the Missouri Legislature later determined was credible.

Greitens is a hard-core Trumpist, though Trump hasn’t endorsed a GOP candidate running in the primary. Republican leaders in the state are so scared of Greitens on the ballot that even Missouri’s Senator Josh Hawley, Mr. Insurrection himself, decided to endorse a candidate even though he’d initially said he wouldn’t. He backed Missouri Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler, a viciously anti-LGBTQ House member who, like all the candidates in the race, is as full-on MAGA as Greitens, having voted against certifying the 2020 election.

Kunce’s powerful economic messages and his focus on the urgency of dealing with climate change are resonating with Missourians. And having served in the Marines working with the Joint Chiefs on issues related to Russia, he’d be a senator who has experience focusing on both domestic and foreign policy issues that the U.S. faces.

Missouri has been a solidly red state in recent presidential elections, but has elected Democrats to statewide office, like Senator Claire McCaskill, who served from 2007 until 2019. Democratic Secretary of State Jason Kander, challenging Blunt in 2016, came within three points of ousting the GOP senator even as Donald Trump won the state by 16 points that same year. So, a dynamic Democrat who connects with voters can certainly win in Missouri.

Listen in to my conversation on my SiriusXM show with Lucas Kunce, and check out his website.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

In a discussion on my SiriusXM program about mask and vaccine mandates — and angry Canadian truckers — Jeff from Washington, DC called to say it’s an “invasion of privacy” issue and people don’t want to be forced to show “their papers.”

When I asked if he had a driver’s license or just drove without one, he bafflingly stated, “You don’t need a driver’s license if you drive on your own property.”

Guess he never leaves his driveway?

And when I asked if he wore a seatbelt, he said no — to which I pointed out that he’s breaking the law and if stopped by the police he will have to show his “papers,” his license (and will be punished).

Just like the way you’ll be turned away from a restaurant that requires vax proof or fired from your job if your employer has a mandate, I explained. Any difference, I asked?

Yes, Jeff said, because when driving you’re on a public road when a police officer asks you for your license. But when you go into a restaurant they’re not an agent of the state.

Put aside the fact that he’d just previously implied it was wrong for the state to require a license and enforce seatbelt laws — but now was defending it and differentiating it from a restaurant, which is following health department rules.

A restaurant having to protect patrons by not serving food that is rotted or by curing a rodent problem is different, he said, from a restaurant having to enforce a vaccine mandate because the former is a “health department issue.”

But so are the vaccine mandates — enforced by the health department to protect patrons.

It just went that way, on and on, with Jeff contradicting himself and spinning in circles.

It’s always a treat listening to these people twist themselves up and having to deal in logic — and it just sharpens our arguments. This one was pretty ridiculous. I ended it by telling him to wear his seat belts.

Listen in and let me know your thought!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

Rob in Seattle called into my SiriusXM show with the predictable argument that the left is “canceling” Joe Rogan. This, even as I explained that Rogan hasn’t been thrown off Spotify but in fact musicians have made a choice to remove their own music.

That, he still said, was a call to “censorship,” even though the musicians are engaging in their own free speech in the free market, and deny Spotify the right to their music.

Rob then seemed oblivious to the fact that the GOP are banning books in several states and subjects in classrooms, including teaching the history of racism or talking about sexual orientation.

But back to Rogan, when I asked him if everyone should be saying the N-word on TV, say, on CNN or other channels — as Rogan did on his podcast — he said, “No — it is free speech but there are consequences, repercussions” for free speech.

Well, isn’t that what Rogan is experiencing in the free market? Rob didn’t have too much to say to that, as he basically undermined his whole argument.

Listen in and let me know your thoughts.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe

If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!

Earlier in the week, on my SiriusXM show I discussed the controversy over Joe Rogan’s Covid vaccine misinformation and his platform, Spotify, facing the actions of artists taking their music off the platform in protest.

I also focused in on the latest fake cure being promoted by anti-vaxxers: A tea made from pine needles, which, miraculously, was supposedly proved effective back in 2011, according to it’s backer — long before Covid-19.

Don’t even ask. You can watch this video in which the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody interviews a purveyor of this new conspiracy, which like all anti-vax conspiracies, is dangerous because it prevents people from getting vaccinated.

Shortly after my discussion, Steve from Utah called my program to say that Joe Biden and Rachel Maddow have peddled “misinformation” for saying the vaccines will protect you against Covid-19 and from transmitting it to others — apparently because there are breakthrough cases and thus they were supposedly not telling the truth.

I asked, If I tell you to take two aspirin for your headache is that a guarantee that your headache will go away?

No, of course, not. But quite likely, and much more probable than if you didn’t take aspirin. He couldn’t really answer questions about how the vaccines are 85% and 90% effective but that means, yes, there will be breakthroughs.And even if there are, those people are less likely to go to the hospital, per all the studies we now have.

The conversation devolved into idiocy, as it does with these people, to the point where I asked him if he was taking animal urine — another conspiracy cure — and drinking the pine needle tea.

He then accused me of “gaslighting.” LOL.

Listen in and let me know your thoughts!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.signorile.com/subscribe