IKEA Monkey

Chris Evans has officially announced that he's leaving acting behind to pursue a career as a director. He spent his last hiatus directing a feature called 1:30 Train, about "a young woman who misses her ride home at Grand Central Terminal and spends the night talking to a street musician."

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Nobody respects tractor art.

Everyone wants to leave their mark on the field — but maybe not quite like this. A 40-year-old Milwaukee man is facing charges after entering Miller Park while it was unlocked, commandeering a tractor, and trying to write his name on the field.

The incident, which happened back in June, caused an estimated $40,000 in damages. I’m not going to sit here and say it’s okay to trespass in a stadium and tear up the field, but I respect that the man had really lofty goals. According to the criminal complaint the man told police he was “going to try to write his name in cursive with the tractor tires, but it moved too slow.”

I’m no tractor expect. The extent of my knowledge on the subject extends to my riding lawnmower. However, the idea of trying to pull off CURSIVE on a tractor feels like you’re setting the game to hard mode. Unless you are an extremely experienced tractor artist, there is no way you’re doing anything close to that. It’s a case of needing to walk before you run — knock out some all caps before trying to attempt letters with more curves, then work your way up to cursive.

Still, as Kevin Durant once said (probably) “you miss 100 percent of the 26 letters you don’t try to write with a tractor.”

“I’m going to have to check my underwear because I may have sharted.”

New Japan’s Juice Robinson dropped one of the best promos of the year, shortly after dropping something else.

Robinson was wrestling in the G1 Climax, one of the most prestigious wrestling events of the year in Japan, when he was kicked hard, very hard by Kenta. Juice was unfortunately a little too loose, and pooped his pants in the ring as a result.

Now, for most people this would be so shameful you’d never mention it to anyone. Robinson, being the legend he is, walked back stage, told the world he sharted on camera, then found a way to seamlessly transition into a killer promo about how he’s better than everyone else in the event.

If Robinson looks familiar it might be because you’ve seen him working in WWE’s NXT before. Previously known as CJ Parker, Robinson made the move to Japan and has since become one of the biggest stars in the company. Now regarded as one of the top gaijin’s in New Japan (foreign wrestlers) he’s making everyone notice him again. Heck, even WWE superstar Kevin Owens respected the game of cutting a promo immediately after sharting.

It’s a cruel twist of fate that the same night Robinson improved his record in the G1 to 2-0, he also went two and oh. Life’s weird like that.

Hear the heartwarming story of Troop 242, and why this year they decided to put their Girl Scout cookie proceeds to good use and buy a 2020 Corvette Stingray with a 6-liter V8 engine and 400-plus horsepower.

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In late May, Christian Cooper was birdwatching in Central Park when he was accosted and abused for the color of his skin by a white woman after he asked her to leash her dog. Cooper, who is both an avid birdwatcher (he’s on the board of directors for the NYC Audubon Society) and a pioneering comics writer (he was Marvel’s first openly gay writer and editor), has combined his experiences and interests into a new graphic novel for DC Comics called It’s a Bird.

From the NY Times:

The slim, 10-page story is impressionistic, without a real plot. It is the first in a series called “Represent!” that features works of writers “traditionally underrepresented in the mainstream comic book medium,” including people of color or those who are LGBTQ, Marie Javins, an executive editor at DC, said in a statement. It will be available online for free starting Wednesday, at several digital book and comic book retailers.

The main character of “It’s a Bird” is a teenage birder named Jules, who is Black. When Jules tries to peer through his binoculars at birds, he instead sees the faces of Black people who have been killed by the police.

It’s a Bird is available for free from DC Comics. You can read an interview with Cooper and the rest of the creative team (artist Alitha E. Martinez, inker Mark Morales, colorist Emilio Lopez, and letterer Rob Clark Jr.) on the company’s blog. (via open culture)

What is a mascot’s life when there are no fans?

“If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” — Unknown

It’s a classic, cliched existential philosophical query. It questions the nature of identity and whether anything can exist if nothing is there to observe it. If a mascot’s job is to bring mirth and entertain, does that mascot still exist if nobody is there to enjoy it?

This is the life of a mascot in 2020. More specifically, an NFL mascot. No children to validate them. No drunken fans to high five. T-shirt cannons silenced by circumstance, trivia questions left unanswered, and gas station gift cards left unclaimed, without a fan in attendance to sit in the winning seat. There were times this weekend when you caught a fleeting glimpse of a mascot. Running through the stands, in full dominion of its concrete jungle, but with no subjects to lord. Lost, wandering souls, waving flags or dancing, with nobody to enjoy it. Occasionally a camera would face them, if only for a moment, making them feel alive until it turned back to the action and they vanished from consciousness once more.

Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images

A great many things felt odd about starting the NFL season without fans, but it wasn’t until I thought of the mascots that things got truly sad. Make no mistake, I’m happy a human under the costume has a job, it’s a luxury far too many stadium employees don’t this season, but still think about it. Here is a person, dressed as an animal, dancing around in the heat for nobody’s enjoyment. They’re window dressing, a football amuse bouche. In attendance only for the brief moments when returning from a commercial break, and even then they’re at the whims of a TV producer.

The only “go time” for the pandemic mascot is field goals. Here, with the camera pointed squarely at the stands they can dance between the uprights and feel alive. Then, the point is over and they begin their sad trudge around an empty stadium once more, hoping the world will care about them again. Does the world care? Can they care with everything else happening? Alas, the existential crisis of the mascot grows — left to contemplate its existence in solitude. Desperately wishing to scream in anguish, but rendered silent. Mascots can’t talk, after all.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

This is not how we should be seeing mascots. It’s like a tiger at a traveling state fair zoo. Sure, it’s nice to see it — but you know this isn’t it’s natural habitat. It’s alone, scared and wants to be back among its kind. Unlike the caged tiger, the mascot desperately needs people to prove its existence. Without the fan the mascot’s job is unfulfilling, sad, soul crushing.

“Perhaps its inevitable, perhaps one has to choose between being nothing at all and impersonating what one is.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason

There is no good answer for the plight of the lonesome stadium mascot. They will continue their macabre dance for the remainder of the season. Perhaps into the playoffs, should their team be lucky enough, but for the mascot this prize is pain. The mascot wants all this to end, for their life is forfeit. For you see, the NFL mascot is in a prison not of their making. They didn’t want this. They didn’t ask for this. They wanted fans, life, energy around them, much as the players do on the field. That, however, is impossible. The players are the lucky ones. They have a game to distract them for a few hours, another point of focus to point their energy. The mascot does not have this privilege. It must continue to dance and entertain, without anyone left to appreciate it.

If there’s one thing we should all do it’s to pause our TVs the next time a mascot is on the screen. If only for a moment. Not for us, but for them. To make them feel alive, appreciated and loved for a fleeting few seconds. Then, at least their presence on Sundays will not be in vain.

Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

It ain’t no joke: Sturgis, South Dakota’s massive Sturgis Motorcycle Rally kicked off on Friday, and not via Zoom. Thousands of motorcyclists roared into the town for the annual 10-day event, despite there being, you know, five million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States. Per CBS News, city officials…

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There’s a lot of music out there. To help you cut through all the noise, every week The A.V. Club is rounding up A-Sides, five recent releases we think are worth your time. You can listen to these and more on our Spotify playlist, and if you like what you hear, we encourage you to purchase featured artists’ music…

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The earthquake's effects were reportedly also felt in parts of South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia

Later this month, audiences around the world (including—though this is less certain—some in the United States) will finally lay eyes on what once looked like the movie event of the summer, Tenet. In honor of the belated release of this time-bending thriller, we’re spending the rest of August talking about the…

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The Bachelorette universe has been ablaze with drama over the last few weeks, so bear with me: No one knows what the forthcoming season is going to look like, or even who will be involved, and these issues are only loosely tied to covid-19 delays. Intrigued? Me too!

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HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!

In case you needed some reassurance that magic is real, here’s Katie Ledecky swimming a lap of an Olympic pool with an open glass of milk balanced on her head.

I’m going to work under the assumption that this is real, and not a viral marketing attempt by Big Milk — because, frankly, I need this to be real. There is nothing quite as joyous as the possibility that anyone could achieve a feat like this, even Katie Ledecky, because it seems utterly impossible.

I don’t know if I could reliably walk down a flight of stairs while holding a glass of milk without tripping and spilling it all over myself, let alone swim an entire pool. Let’s be real, I don’t know if I could even swim the length of a pool, but I digress. Either way this requires a stunning amount of core strength and balance, which seems impossible all while keeping a glass of milk on your head.

Of course, the stakes are high here too. If that milk falls in the water then someone is going to have a really bad day trying to work out whether the pool filters can adequately remove chocolate milk well enough that the pool doesn’t need to be drained.

Twitter has temporarily suspended the account belonging to Donald Trump Jr, the son of U.S. President Donald Trump after he posted content that violated the company’s policies on misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The account will be suspended for 12 hours, during which time Don Jr. will be barred from posting new messages, liking or retweeting other posts. He will still be allowed to use Twitter’s Direct Message service to contact his followers. A Twitter spokesperson said this was not a suspension, that it was a "temporary lockout until the Tweet is deleted—not a suspension."

The tweet that triggered the suspension linked to a video that contains multiple falsehoods and dubious claims about COVID-19 and its treatments. The post was deleted and replaced with a message simply saying “this tweet is no longer available.”

President Trump also posted several tweets linking to the video on Monday night. While his account was not suspended, the tweets were also deleted.

The video showed a group of people dressed in white lab coats claiming to be from an organization called “America’s Frontline Doctors.” The video, which was live-streamed by right-wing news outlet Breitbart, contained people claiming masks were not needed and that hydroxychloroquine was a “cure.”

“Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy,” the Twitter spokesperson said.

WALNUT CREEK, CA—Touting their new product as “the last word in alleviating hunger,” Del Monte Foods introduced a new extended-release, maximum-strength chewable peach Wednesday which they claim possesses up to four times the power of normal stone fruit. “Del Monte’s new formula combines the same fast-acting flavor of…

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John Oliver dedicated last night’s Last Week Tonight to addressing COVID-19 misinformation and the “gentle” ways in which one can encourage the conspiracy-minded among us to better vet the news sources they scroll by on Facebook. Joining him was a slew of celebs, including Catherine O’Hara, Billy Porter, Paul Rudd,…

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Despite keywords pointing to the contrary, this is not a story about a Donald Trump rally. On Sunday, Kanye West held his first campaign event since announcing his 2020 presidential bid earlier this month. Over the course of his hour-long, rambling speech, West—wearing a bullet-proof vest—discussed his thoughts on…

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President Trump is determined to find out exactly how many undocumented immigrants live in the United States, and a few states are ready to help them find out... in a roundabout way.

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Back in 2010, the internet was temporarily amused by the so-called “Kung Fu Bear.” As impressive as this furry warrior was, all he really did was play aimlessly with a stick for a few minutes. He didn’t show any signs of taking his studies further, progressing beyond the staff and into the more advanced martial arts…

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BAGRAM, AFGHANISTAN—Following intelligence reports that Moscow offered to pay Taliban-linked militants to kill coalition forces in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump reportedly slaughtered dozens of U.S. service members Monday in hopes of cashing in on the bounties. “Once I heard Russia was paying out these…

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Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, July 3, and Saturday, July 4. All times are Eastern.

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Update: This post has been updated to include the charges against Corey Hurren and comment from Marc-André Argentino.

Less than an hour before Corey Hurren allegedly drove his pickup truck through the gates of Rideau Hall, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lives, a social media account for his business posted a meme that blames the global elite for COVID-19.

At 6:05 AM, the Instagram account for Grindhouse Fine Foods, the company Hurren operates, posted a meme relating to Event 201—a pandemic training event put on in part by the Bill Gates Foundation. At 6:40 AM, RCMP said Hurren rammed his truck, which contained multiple firearms, through the gates hard enough to set his airbags off. He left the truck on foot with a rifle in his hand and was intercepted by RCMP officers who, after hours of negotiation, were able to take him into custody without incident just before 8:30 A.M.

On Friday afternoon, RCMP announced a slew of firearms charges against Hurren, a member of the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve. They include: four counts of careless use of a firearm, four counts of illegally transporting of a firearm, four counts of possession of a weapon for a dangerous reason, one count of possession of of a prohibited devices, four counts of possession of a restricted firearm with ammunition, and one count of uttering threats. Hurren attended a bail hearing Friday afternoon but it was pushed back until July 17. He will remain in police custody till then.

RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Duheme said there was never any danger to Trudeau or Governor General Julie Payette as they weren’t at their homes at the time of the incident. While the RCMP says the man had “several weapons” on him they did not elaborate about the specifics of the weapons.

Citing anonymous sources, several media outlets have reported that Hurren was armed with several rifles and a shotgun, at least one of which was on him at the time of his arrest. Hurren also allegedly had a note on him that he wished to deliver to Trudeau.

According to LinkedIn, Hurren has operated Grindhouse Fine Foods, a meat company, since 2014. The company’s Instagram account features posts that are related to the business, such as images of sausages, and others that are personal in nature, such as photos of Hurren.

Hurren in a Instagram post from Decemeber 2019. Photo via Grindhouse Fine Foods Instagram.

On March 27, Grindhouse Fine Foods posted a QAnon meme. It features a white rabbit (the mascot for the conspiracy) at the wheel of a car. The Instagram caption says: “Has anyone else been following 'Q' and the 'White Rabbit' down the rabbit hole and how this all relates to the coronavirus/COVID-19 situation? Lots of coincidences in all these 'Q' posts if this turns out to be a 'Nothingburger'." He then lists a plethora of conspiracies in the hashtags which include the killing of Seth Rich, adrenochrome, pizzagate, pedogate, and several related to sex offender Jeffery Epstein. The account also posted several hashtags linked to QAnon like WWG1WGA, a storm is coming, and the deep state.

QAnon is a wide-ranging conspiracy in the United States that focuses on Donald Trumps battles with deep state enemies.

Marc-André Argentino, a PhD candidate at Concordia University who studies QAnon and similar movements, flagged Hurren's post to VICE. Argentino said Hurren's posts indicate that he's not a die-hard QAnon adherent, but may have gotten into the movement during the pandemic because of economic and political stress. However, Argentino stressed that we still don’t have the full picture of what Hurren believes at the moment.

“He's consumed enough of the content to know the very specific hashtags to use,” said Argentino.

The meme Grindhouse posted shortly before Hurren allegedly rammed the gates at Rideau Hall was also posted to the account in May. It refers to Event 201, an international training exercise put on by Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the World Economic Forum in October 2019. The exercise was to test the readiness of the world in the event of a global pandemic. Many conspiracy theorists believe it indicates that Bill Gates, alongside other elites, orchestrated the pandemic. The Event 201 post was first reported on by the Toronto Star.

Hurren is from Bowsman, Manitoba, one of the northernmost farming communities in the province. In Grindhouse’s social media posts, Hurren frequently refers to the fact he’s a veteran who recently rejoined the military as a Canadian Rangers member. The Rangers are a part of the national reserve that serve in remote regions.

A robot with the bomb squad recovered a collection of military rations in Hurren's vehicle following the arrest.

The instagram post referring to QAnon. Photo via Grindhouse Fine Foods Instagram.

In one of Grindhouse’s Instagram posts, Hurren said he had to temporarily shut down his business because of COVID-19.

"As some of you may already know, things have been on hold with my GrindHouse meat products due to the logistics of the COVID-19 situation," he wrote. "I am not sure what will be left of our economy, industries, and businesses when this all ends."

For most of the year, the posts focused on his company (his Ring of Fire sausage, in particular,) his time with the Rangers, and survivalism. That changed in March when COVID-19 hit, and the posts became far more focused on the pandemic and began to reference conspiracies.

The day before Hurren allegedly rammed the gates, an anti-Trudeau rally took place in Ottawa. While the rally was about a variety of subjects, including pushing back on COVID-19 safety measures, many of the attendees were adherents of the conspiracy. Footage of the gathering, which drew hundreds of people, was amplified by Q, the central figure of the QAnon conspiracy. Photos of the event show many attendees holding signs relating to Q. The group chanted “where we go one we go all,” the main slogan of the conspiracy.

There is no evidence directly linking Hurren to the rally. Duchene said at the press conference that as far as he knew, the suspect was “not in Ottawa for another reason” but declined to go into any details relating to his travel or activities in Ottawa prior to breaking through the gates of Rideau Hall armed.

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.

Just a few short weeks ago, the entire city of Tulsa, Oklahoma banded together to tell the president that the middle of a pandemic is not the best time for a visit, to which the Trump administration unilaterally replied: “It’ll probably be fine.”

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Republicans who say Donald Trump should lose in November but insist they won’t vote for Joe Biden aren’t being honest, Carly Fiorina argues.

Fiorina was a Republican candidate for president just four years ago, and was briefly Ted Cruz’s prospective running mate. Trump needs to go, she says—and that means she’s voting for Biden.

Fiorina is not going to keep quiet, write in another candidate, or vote third-party. “I’ve been very clear that I can’t support Donald Trump,” she told me, in an interview that can be heard in full on the latest episode of The Ticket. “And elections are binary choices.” She struggled with the decision, and whether to go public. But she said that this struggle is one Republicans need to have—including those who have rationalized supporting Trump despite their disagreements, because of some of his policies or judicial appointments.

“As citizens, our vote is more than a check on a box. You know, it’s a statement about where we want to go, and I think what we need now actually is real leadership that can unify the country,” she said. “I am encouraged that Joe Biden is a person of humility and empathy and character. I think he’s demonstrated that through his life. And I think we need humility and empathy everywhere in public life right now. And I think character counts.”

Of course, Trump diehards will dismiss her. She has said over the years that Trump isn’t a real businessman, that he lacks character, that he is the definition of an autocrat, that impeachment was “vital.” But she’s not the stereotype of a Republican squish: Before her 2016 run, she was a Tea Party–type candidate for Senate in 2010 and the CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Four years ago, she voted for Trump—even after he’d been caught saying about her, “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?”

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who said she agrees with former Defense Secretary James Mattis that Trump is a threat to the Constitution, but is “struggling” with whether to vote for him, is putting politics over principle, Fiorina told me. John Bolton, who has said he hopes for America’s sake that Trump loses but that he’ll write in a conservative Republican, looks to Fiorina like he’s “desperately trying to preserve some position in the Republican Party as a conservative Republican.” As for Cruz, who’s turned into an avid Trump defender—she said she hasn’t spoken with him in years. And Trump, she told me, can tweet whatever he wants about her.

[Read: Kamala Harris’s very open secret]

It hasn’t been an easy journey to backing a Democrat, especially when she thinks about issues that she cares deeply about, such as limiting government spending and restricting abortion. But as she’s been working with her Unlocking Potential Foundation, which focuses on increasing diversity among corporate leadership, she’s also been watching how the coronavirus pandemic has exposed inequality in America. She needed to speak up, too. Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are right, she said: The structures of power have been bent too far toward corporate control. But if conservatives really want to do anything about it, she said, they need to start by standing up for their principles.

Listen to the interview here:

Subscribe to The Ticket on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or another podcast platform to receive new episodes as soon as they’re published.

What follows is an edited and condensed transcript:

Edward-Isaac Dovere: Tom Nichols, the professor and writer who’s a Republican who’s turned on Trump, tweeted a few weeks ago: “I’m not sure who my people are.” With what’s happened with the Republican Party over these past few years, do you know who your people are?

Carly Fiorina: I am a registered Republican. I don’t believe I owe loyalty to a party. I believe I owe loyalty as a citizen to my community, to the Constitution, to other Americans. And I think we have witnessed, particularly in the era of Trump—but prior to that as well— what George Washington warned us about, which is that the trouble with political parties is people will come to care only about winning, and they’ll forget about values and governing. So as I’ve said publicly before, I’m unconcerned about whether I’m a loyal Republican or not, and I’m unconcerned about where “my people” are in a party structure.

Dovere: When former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Trump was a threat to the Constitution, and Lisa Murkowski said she agreed with Mattis but is “struggling” with whether to support Trump, do you understand that struggle?

Fiorina: If you’re a politician, I do. I mean, if you’re a politician, you’re focused on winning. And I think all politicians, elected politicians in the Republican Party, have struggled with the power of Trump’s base. And so I don’t understand the struggle from the point of view of principles or beliefs. But I do understand it from the point of view of a politician. I think it’s why people are losing faith in politics and why too many people think all politicians are the same.

Dovere: Have you made up your mind about who you’re going to vote for in November?

Fiorina: I’ve been very clear that I can’t support Donald Trump. And, you know, elections are binary choices … I will say this: I think—I hope—that Biden understands that this moment in history calls for him to be a leader, not a politician.

Dovere: But so you are voting for Joe Biden?

Fiorina: Well, it’s not ’til November. I’m not voting for Trump, but it’s a binary choice. So if faced with a binary choice on a ballot: yes.

But I’m making, I think, just as important a point, which is: He will get a lot of pressure, as all politicians do, to be a politician. And yet I think what the nation is looking for is a leader. What’s the difference? Well, politics is about win-lose. I’m right; you’re wrong. It is, unfortunately, often about an argument between extremes. Leadership, on the other hand, is about problem-solving and making progress and changing the order of things for the better, which means it’s about humility and empathy and collaboration. And I think this moment calls upon Joe Biden to be a leader. I am encouraged that Joe Biden is a person of humility and empathy and character. I think he’s demonstrated that through his life.

Dovere: What about John Bolton, who says he’ll write in a conservative Republican, even though he wants Trump to lose?

Fiorina: I don’t really know what to make of that. I can’t read John Bolton’s mind, but I think John Bolton is desperately trying to preserve some position in the Republican Party as a conservative Republican. And maybe that’s what causes him to say that.

Dovere: Why isn’t it enough to say that the president got tax reform and all the judges, and that he’ll hold off all the liberal policies that he says will come with Biden?

Fiorina: I applaud his Supreme Court justice picks and the justices that he’s appointed into the lower courts. And I’m pro-life, and I didn’t agree completely with his tax-reform package. I didn’t agree with the bailout of big companies. I mean, I don’t always agree with the positions the Republican Party has taken. But, yes, there are plenty of policy differences that I have with Joe Biden. And there are plenty of policy differences that I have with the more progressive wing of the Democrat Party. And yet, I think when Biden talks about the soul of the nation, I think what he’s talking about is values and principles and character. Principles like coequal branches of government, principles like problem-solving should be a collaborative process, a bipartisan process. I think all those things matter.

[Read: What happened to Carly Fiorina?]

Dovere: Abortion is an important issue for you. Trump says he’s been very committed to blocking abortion, and has appointed judges in favor of restrictions. Biden wouldn’t be. How do you reconcile what you see as an issue of life and death?

Fiorina: The vast majority of Americans agree that abortion for any reason at all after five months is wrong. And yet we haven’t made progress on that, despite having pieces of legislation in front of us. That’s because playing politics on the extreme, you’re either pro-choice and any abortion any time is okay, or you’re pro-life and there is no middle ground, and we have to pass amendments on personhood. We’re not making progress. And so let’s focus on making progress where people agree and actually solving a problem of abortion after five months. Let’s start there. And I’ve been public about that for a very, very long time. I would also say this, that if we care so deeply about unborn life—and I do, because I think every life has enormous potential and is gifted by God. And I think abortion is used discriminantly against poor people and people of color—but if we care about life that’s unborn, we need to care about life that’s in this world too. And that means we actually have to make progress on criminal-justice reform and police reform. And we have to stand up and recognize systemic racism and structural racism and make real progress on that, because too many lives that are here are being wasted and ignored and dismissed and overlooked. And sadly, murdered in broad daylight.

Dovere: Biden is a devout Catholic, and he’s struggled with his own position. But he has moved toward fewer restrictions, not more.

Fiorina: I think this is a great example of an opportunity to lead rather than just playing politics. He could do that. He could lead. He could problem-solve. He could find common ground on a bipartisan basis.

Dovere: We’re in a period of rethinking the economy. What’s the fiscally conservative approach to rethinking the economy that you’d like to see?

Fiorina: What’s happened over decades and decades is: Big companies have used the power of big government to make their businesses bigger and more powerful and profitable. That’s just a fact. It’s true in many, many industries. And so we have to start with the fundamental recognition. I believe, as our Founders told us, it’s why they wrote the Constitution the way they did. Power concentrated [is] power abused. So you have big companies using big government. You have wealthy individuals using the complexity of the tax codes, all of those things—Washington, the way it’s structured, favors the big, the powerful, the wealthy, the connected. And so that means, in my view, that wherever possible, we block-grant money to states instead of keeping it in Washington, D.C. I think we should have done that in the CARES Act and as we deal with the coronavirus. It means that we have to have reasonable regulation that holds big companies accountable. And that’s true whether it’s finance or energy or, frankly, technology. And it also means, I think, that we have to take extraordinary care to help small businesses survive, and to make sure that hourly workers have the opportunity to earn a living. I think all those things are required. Now, there are a lot of people who would listen to all that and say, “Boy, you don’t sound like a Republican.” Okay, fine. And maybe I don’t sound like a Democrat either, but I think those are the things that would actually work. It is absurd. I mean, just take on one other issue: It’s absurd what CEOs are paid now as compared to hourly workers. And the business community ought to take that on, because if they don’t take it on, eventually, government is going to take it on. And that’s not necessarily the right answer.

Dovere: Are you worried that we could come out of the pandemic with more inequality and structural problems, that the economy will get worse?

Fiorina: Look, I agree with Elizabeth Warren, for example, that the financial industry has concentrated too much power. I agree with Bernie Sanders that our health-care system does not work for everyone. Where I disagree with them profoundly is their answer is a big government program for all of that. And power concentrated is power abused. We know that. So if we continue to create vast government bureaucracies to control everything, guess what? The bigger are going to get bigger and the wealthy are going to get wealthier, because they know how to play the system. And meanwhile, the small get crushed and the disadvantaged are no better off. So, yes, I’m very concerned. And I’m also concerned—I mean, as I think many Americans are—this pandemic has exposed how inequitable our economy is. This isn’t news. But I think people are becoming aware. It’s not news that there hasn’t been equal justice under the law, that it’s not news if there hasn’t been equal opportunities to succeed. It’s not news that people don’t have equal access to quality health care. All that’s been around for a long time and politicians have argued about it for a long time. But it’s not getting better. And so now we need problem-solving and leadership, not politics as usual.

Dovere: When you ran for office, your argument was to bring some of the business mentality to government. That was part of how Donald Trump positioned himself too. Has he proven that government doesn’t need a business mentality?

Fiorina: Donald Trump is many things, but he’s not a successful businessman. I understand government is different than business. But here’s some things that government could learn from business: an emphasis on results, on facts, on data, on numbers. And when we look at the problems that we face as a nation, the facts and the data and the numbers have been crystal clear for a long time. Here’s another thing that business discipline would bring to government: an emphasis on customers. Government’s customers are who? Citizens, citizens. Here’s another thing that comes from business: the ability to consistently ask your customers, survey your customers, use technology to serve your customers. I talked a lot about this during the campaign as well. We have the technology available that would literally allow citizens to weigh in—not politicians—citizens to weigh in on every pressing issue of the day. And yet politicians don’t use it. Government doesn’t use it. Here’s one last one: Every dollar counts. In business, dollars matter. You don’t get to print money, and therefore you spend a lot of time prioritizing how to spend money. We haven’t prioritized how to spend money in Washington in a long time, which is why we just keep spending more and more of it, and the same problems that we’re talking about now are the problems we talked about 40 years ago.  

Dovere: You were Ted Cruz’s running mate. When was the last time you talked to him?

Fiorina: Several years ago.

Dovere: What do you make of the way he’s turned around on Trump and is now supporting him?

Fiorina: I don’t excuse it. I don’t. It disappoints me. I’ve been public in my disappointment about how few politicians have been willing to stand up and speak on values and principles. But I understand it if you’re in politics, sadly. So I—people, I think, are tired of politics and politicians and whether they’re Democrats or Republicans. If you’re in politics, as Hillary Clinton used to say, you’re in it to win it.  

Dovere: What does a turnaround like his mean for the future of the GOP? If Trump loses, is it a party that continues to be defined by him, or is it a party that tries to forget about him?

Fiorina: Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know. I think—I just don’t know.

Dovere: You’ve had the experience of being a woman in politics. Biden will pick a woman as a running mate. What does she need to watch out for?

Fiorina: Well, you know, I would liken it honestly to the experience I had when I became the first woman to lead a Fortune 50 company: It’s different when you’re different. The scrutiny is different. The criticism is different. The expectations are different. Both much higher and much lower. There isn’t the benefit of the doubt granted. There isn’t the presumption of competence granted. The margin for error is far smaller. I remember as a presidential candidate being on national TV for an interview, and the interviewer said to me, “We have a viewer in Texas who asks: Don’t a woman’s hormones prevent her from serving in the Oval Office?” In other words, isn’t a woman too emotional? And I paused on national television and I said, “Gee, can we think of a single instance in which a man’s judgment was clouded by his hormones, including in the Oval Office?” Now, that’s a funny example. But it’s a very telling example, I think. Men are some of the most emotional creatures I have ever met, and they are driven in no small measure by their hormones. And yet we are always worried about women’s emotions. It’s different when you’re different. I had people say to me, “You don’t smile enough on the debate stage.” No one would make that comment about any man, any man.

Dovere: What happens if President Trump tweets about you and this interview?

Fiorina: Honestly, let anybody tweet. I don’t spend my life trying to upset people. I spend my life trying to have a positive impact by working with other people. And that means that when I’m wrong, I hope I can admit it. When someone teaches me something I needed to learn, I hope I incorporate it. But it also means that I have to be forthright about who I am and what I believe and what I have learned over a lifetime.