Leah Feiger: I hate all these words, just so you know. I hate them so much.
Lauren Good: We don’t need to say it again, Leah, but yes, welcome to Silicon Valley, and I think they see what’s happening right now, the scrutiny on Big Tech (and to a lesser extent small tech), some of the regulatory proposals and the actual regulatory action that has come on new and emerging technologies, they see it as counterproductive to their ultimate goals. And so if they can go out there and put the word in the ear of the most influential politician, the leader of the free world – by the way, Trump has said he would eliminate a lot of the governmental and regulatory bodies that we’re all using right now, that would benefit them in some way. Honestly, it’s very selfish.
Makena Kelly: Yeah, and a lot of… It’s not just the candidates, right? It’s also who they’re going to appoint to the really important positions that these companies are going to be involved with, whether it’s DHS and immigration policy with H-1B visas, or of course the biggest villain in the government, Lina Khan, is also one of these people.
Leah Feiger: Sure.
Lauren Good: Except for J.D. Vance, who has made statements in support of Lena Kahan in the past, but we guess he’s changed his mind.
Leah Feiger: Every five minutes, basically. We have a lot more to cover, and I have no doubt we expect you guys to keep talking about Silicon Valley and its impact on this race. But Lauren and Makena, thank you so much for joining us now. We’ll talk to you later for Conspiracy of the Week.
Makena Kelly: Thank you.
Lauren Good: Sounds awesome. I can’t wait.
Leah Feiger: After the break, David Gilbert explains how Republicans are calling Biden’s exit from the race a “coup.”
[break]
Leah Feiger: Welcome back to WIRED Politics Laboratory. So Biden announced his decision to withdraw from the 2024 election at about 2 a.m. on Sunday. Immediately, both right-wing and mainstream Republican lawmakers began calling the news a “coup.” Joining me from Cork, Ireland, to talk about the right-wing reactions he’s seen online is WIRED reporter David Gilbert. David, hello. How are you doing?
David Gilbert: Everything is going well. It’s nice to be here.
Leah Feiger: David, you started seeing this coup language long before Biden actually got out. When did you first recognize it?
David Gilbert: I think it was probably a week or two before the announcement on Sunday. This idea had been building for some time that Trump was prepared to campaign against Biden and wanted to campaign against him because of how successful he was in the debates or how bad Biden was, I think. So in the weeks between the debates and Biden’s exit, we saw this idea from the right that the efforts by the Democratic side to effectively oust Biden were part of a so-called coup. I think last week at The Babylon Bee, this satirical right-wing online website, ran a headline that said, “Democratic Party leaders vote to save democracy by sidelining coup-inducing electors.” Dan Bongino, the right-wing commentator, he was talking about a coup on Twitter last week. So it was definitely building in the days and weeks before Biden left.
