Josh Shapiro on Trump, Iran War Chaos, Israel’s Failure, the Economy, and 2028 Race

Summary

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, with a 60% approval rating and a viral old basketball highlight reel, joins the All-In besties for a wide-ranging conversation that doubles as a 2028 audition. Shapiro lays out his Pennsylvania playbook — pro-growth, pro-freedom, less red tape, aggressive prosecution of fraud — and explains how he cut barber permitting from 20 days to same-day issuance, eliminated layers of regulation across life sciences and manufacturing, and made government “a force for good” by relentlessly getting to yes. He pushes back hard on the wealth tax, arguing that capital flight to Florida and Texas is real and that the Democratic Party’s loudest voices are pushing policy that loses the very middle class they claim to protect.

The conversation turns sharply political. Shapiro reveals he privately told Joe Biden he should not seek another term, and confirms that he called Kamala Harris on a Sunday evening to take himself out of consideration for VP. He calls the current congressional leadership — particularly Speaker Mike Johnson — “frankly kind of sad pathetic people” who rubber-stamp Trump rather than asserting Article I prerogatives over war and tariffs. He distinguishes between healthy disagreements over spending and what he frames as “extraordinary” Trump-era self-dealing: family enrichment, abuse of the pardon power, and the Qatari jet gift Chamath flags as casually accepted.

The episode closes on Israel and antisemitism, one year after the firebombing of Shapiro’s home by an antisemitic attacker. Shapiro insists on separating the conversations: he is unsparing about Bibi Netanyahu’s failures, the Iran war’s incoherent objectives, and the fact that “America should never be led around by any other nation,” while warning against the conflation of American Jews with Israeli policy as one of “the oldest antisemitic tropes.” David Sacks closes with his sharpest line of the episode — that the Iran intervention was yet another broken Trump promise to the voters who elected him.

Highlights

Permits in 20 Days, Then Same Day

“The day I took office, it took 20 days for a barber to get their permit to be able to go out and cut hair. Today you get it same day.” — Josh Shapiro, 7:05

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”You Should Be Paying More Taxes in Pennsylvania”

“You should be paying more taxes in Pennsylvania, man. Stop paying them elsewhere.” — Josh Shapiro, 13:21

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Telling Biden to Stand Down

“It became clear to me that Joe Biden’s seeking another term was probably not in the best interest of the party or the country and I spoke to him…” — Josh Shapiro, 21:18

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Calling Kamala to Withdraw

“I called Sunday evening after she and I met and had a really candid conversation to inform her that I did not want to be considered. I thought she had some really good people to choose from.” — Josh Shapiro, 24:43

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”Frankly Kind of Sad Pathetic People”

“I actually think the Congress of the United States, the leadership there, I mean they are frankly kind of sad pathetic people. You put Johnson in as Speaker, and he’s effectively a rubber stamp for any…” — Josh Shapiro, 39:09

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”America Should Never Be Led Around by Any Other Nation”

“America should never, pardon me, America should never be led around by any other nation. It should always be about America’s interests, our national security interests, the interests of expanding freedom and opportunity for the American people.” — Josh Shapiro, 57:31

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Key Points

• Old basketball highlight reel (0:31) — Episode opens with a 1990 VHS clip of a young Shapiro in short shorts hitting jumpers
• PA’s pro-growth playbook (5:11) — Permits as economic development tools, not gatekeeping bureaucracy
• Same-day barber permits (7:05) — Cut from 20-day waits as a symbol of broader regulatory overhaul
• Government as force for good (8:27) — Shapiro’s stated philosophy: get to yes, work for the people, prosecute fraud
• Horseshoe theory of extremes (10:04) — Friedberg flags the populist left and right have hijacked the conversation; majority just wants high-functioning society
• Life sciences in PA (15:30) — New companies planting flags in PA because of tax and regulatory environment
• Against the wealth tax (16:18) — Shapiro warns it drives capital and talent flight; doesn’t address actual disparity
• Trump tariffs as middle-class burden (19:58) — Shapiro frames tariffs as shifting cost onto people already struggling
• Privately told Biden to step aside (21:18) — Shapiro confirms he wrote about this in his book
• No speed primary disaster (20:44) — Jason laments lack of July–August 2024 primary that could have given Shapiro/Pritzker/Buttigieg a fair shot
• Took himself out for VP (24:43) — Sunday evening call to Kamala Harris to withdraw
• Housing and college failures (33:19) — Two generations told the American Dream was buyable; both feel tricked
• Congress as rubber stamp (39:09) — Speaker Mike Johnson criticized for surrendering Article I oversight on tariffs and war
• Pardon power abuse (45:02) — Shapiro, a former prosecutor, calls for real review of self-dealing pardons
• Family member enrichment (42:00) — “Extraordinary” self-dealing; Chamath flags the Qatari jet
• One year since firebombing (47:20) — Shapiro’s home was firebombed by an antisemitic attacker
• Antisemitism vs. Israel policy (48:09) — Shapiro insists they’re separate conversations
• Bibi’s failures (49:56) — Shapiro joins Friedberg in criticizing Netanyahu’s handling of Gaza and Iran
• Iran broken-promise framing (54:54) — Sacks: Iran intervention is yet another Trump broken promise to his base
• 80-something to 60-something Ayatollah (55:35) — Sacks dismisses regime change rationale: replaced one Ayatollah with a more hardline one
• Conflation as antisemitic trope (58:14) — Shapiro warns equating American Jews with Israeli policy is one of the oldest antisemitic tropes

Mentions

People

• Josh Shapiro (0:00) — PA Governor, 60% approval, former state AG
• Joe Biden (21:18) — Shapiro told him privately not to run again
• Kamala Harris (24:43) — Shapiro withdrew from VP consideration via Sunday call
• Donald Trump (19:58) — Tariffs, pardons, family enrichment, Iran intervention all critiqued
• Mike Johnson (39:09) — Speaker; “rubber stamp” critique
• JB Pritzker / Pete Buttigieg (20:44) — Other potential 2024 primary candidates locked out
• Bibi Netanyahu (49:56) — Critiqued for Gaza and Iran policy
• Hunter Biden (45:05) — Cited as comparator on legal process and pardons
• Bill Clinton (42:46) — Reference point on pardon norm-breaking
• Elon Musk / Obama (30:37) — Cited as Democratic snub: Musk waited hours for Obama at SpaceX, then disinvited from EV summit

Places & Institutions

• Pennsylvania — 60% approval, life-sciences hub, GOP-friendly purple state
• California / Texas / Florida (4:34) — Reference points for capital flight and dysfunction
• Austin (13:23) — Where many of Friedberg’s friends moved to escape California taxes
• Qatar (42:30) — Source of the controversial jet gift to Trump
• Iran (54:54) — Subject of recent Trump strikes; framed as broken promise

Concepts

• Wealth tax — Shapiro opposes; warns of capital flight
• Article I oversight — Congress’s constitutional power on war and tariffs
• Pardon norms — Soft constraints abused by recent administrations
• Horseshoe theory — Far left and far right converging in dysfunction

Surprising Quotes

“You should be paying more taxes in Pennsylvania, man. Stop paying them elsewhere.” — Josh Shapiro, 13:21

“I actually think the Congress of the United States, the leadership there, I mean they are frankly kind of sad pathetic people.” — Josh Shapiro, 39:09

“We went from like an 80-something-year-old Ayatollah to a 60-something-year-old Ayatollah who, by all accounts, seems to be far more hard-line. I’d hardly call that successful regime change.” — David Sacks, 55:35

“America should never be led around by any other nation. It should always be about America’s interests, our national security interests, the interests of expanding freedom and opportunity for the American people.” — Josh Shapiro, 57:31

“If you’re suggesting that Jews are Israel and reflect Israeli policies and support everything Israel does, that’s one of the oldest antisemitic tropes.” — Josh Shapiro, 58:14

Transcript

Jason Calacanis: 0:00 All right everybody, we’ve got an incredible guest today, Governor Josh Shapiro is here, obviously Governor of Pennsylvania. He’s got a record-setting popularity in Pennsylvania right now, 60% approval at least. He’s a moderate, he’s focused on getting shit done, GSD. He’s tough on crime, ranked number one according to my notes on charging Medicaid fraud. He’s pro-data center, he’s got a nuanced take on Israel, and he’s a baller, apparently. Cut to the tape.

Josh Shapiro: 0:31 Got ‘em!

David Sacks: 0:33 Oh my god. There’s your governor.

Chamath Palihapitiya: 0:37 Look at those short shorts! Holy crap!

David Friedberg: 0:41 Incredible, wow. That’s the late 80s.

David Sacks: 0:43 And based on the VHS tape, this looks like the 80s.

Josh Shapiro: 0:47 Yeah, that was 1990 I think.

David Sacks: 0:49 Look at that, playing the point. There you go.

Jason Calacanis: 0:52 Very nice, very nice. All right, enough of the short shorts. That was back when people shot mid-range jumpers. They don’t do that anymore, man. They don’t do that.

Josh Shapiro: 0:59 They should.

Jason Calacanis: 1:00 They should! All threes, yeah. I mean, we have a couple of players, and we were talking before the show started, you’re obviously a big Philly fan and I’m a big Knicks fan, so I will see you at the games. We’re on a collision course.

Josh Shapiro: 1:13 I, by the way, with all due respect, and I hope we have a good conversation here, I hope to never see you at the games. Because if you’re showing up in Philly with all your Knicks crap on, I’m not going to be a happy guy.

Jason Calacanis: 1:21 Oh, look at us sitting courtside with my friend Dave, who is one of the co-owners of the team, who’s a mutual friend of ours, who I think egged you on a little bit to come on the program here, which I appreciate.

Josh Shapiro: 1:31 He did. He said ‘go on All-In, they have thoughtful conversations and anxious to have you on’. So thanks for having me.

Jason Calacanis: 1:40 Yeah, there’s so much for us to talk about, but I thought I would start with your track record in Pennsylvania. And the reason I wanted to start there is because there’s a bit of a collision course happening right now between you and Gavin. Gavin’s got what I would describe as a variable tenure here in California. I left California for Texas because I just thought it was a bit of a disaster. But you’re doing great in your state, and that’s in the face of New York, my hometown, New Jersey, Boston, like losing a lot of business leaders. And you’ve been scoring, you know, some big wins. So when you look at your track record, maybe you could just educate the audience on what you’ve gotten done and maybe in comparison to what’s happening in those other states with other Democratic leaders because you seem to be maybe the exception to this rule that Democrats aren’t getting it done on a business level.

Josh Shapiro: 2:31 Look, I’m proud of what we’ve done. I’m not in comparison with Gavin or any other Democratic governor. I’ll just talk about what we’ve done here in Pennsylvania. We are a pro-growth state. We want businesses to come here and grow. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve created more jobs than all but two states in the entire country. We’ve cut taxes seven different times to be more competitive, cut taxes for small businesses, also for families trying to afford childcare for… Avenues for working Pennsylvanians. We’ve taken our permitting process—that’s the usually the ticket you need, say, to build your building, right? If you’re trying to build something here in Pennsylvania. We were bottom five in the country. I think we’re now a national model, easily top five in terms of speed. We’ve got a money-back guarantee on all of our permits; if we don’t get you your permit in time, we’ll give you your money back. And fun fact, we’ve issued 40 million permits during my time as Governor; we’ve only had to issue five refunds, meaning only five of those permits were late. We are now the only growing economy in the northeastern part of the United States. At the same time, we’re investing in workforce development, especially if you don’t have a college degree, tripling funding for Vo-tech and apprenticeship programs and understanding the need to take the workforce we have today and prepare them for jobs here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Proud that we’ve got an unemployment rate below the national rate consistently over the last 32 months. I think it is really critical that every kid born in Pennsylvania gets a great quality education, that that kid has a safe street to walk down to get to school or wherever else they’re going, and that they’ve got a job in the community that they love. Those, to me, are the core foundational principles. It’s what we focus on every single day. Our mantra, as you said at the top, is GSD: get shit done. Those are the areas where we focus on getting shit done and I think we’re putting a lot of points on the board every single day that’s having a meaningful difference in people’s lives.

Jason Calacanis: 4:34 How are you getting that done? Just take the permitting as an example. Why is it so dysfunctional in California? You know, obviously, I’m an investor in technology companies and we just saw red tape after red tape, then on housing. It’s incredibly hard to build anything—the NIMBYism, you know, if you cast a shadow, nothing can be built. And then housing prices keep going up. And you know, if you want to hire a nanny or a teacher or, you know, if a—

Josh Shapiro: 4:59 Yeah.

Jason Calacanis: 5:00 —firefighter moves in, they can’t even afford a home in the community that they’re servicing. So how did you fix this, and why can’t other states not fix it?

Josh Shapiro: 5:11 Yeah. I mean look, I can’t speak to how it’s done in California. I’ll just tell you in Pennsylvania. The way we start the conversation is by recognizing permits are critically important to economic development and to creating jobs, right? If we, the government, can move at the speed of business, if I can give you as a CEO predictability to know your business is going to be open in six months instead of three years, right, because the permits took too long, then you’re going to want to invest here. So we sort of start with the important idea that permits matter. Second, when you come into our state government to get your permit—let’s just use building a building as an example, right?—we want to get to yes. We still want to protect the environment and public health and public safety, and we do that, but we want to get to yes. So our attitude has shifted. Third, we’ve got— I have that money back guarantee because that money back guarantee holds the bureaucracy accountable. Now, I will tell you that some of this we’ve done administratively, meaning I’ve signed executive orders and we’ve made those changes. But in other things, we’ve worked with the legislature to pass new laws to speed up our permitting. And it hasn’t always been easy. Understand, I’m a Democrat as governor. I’ve got a divided legislature. I was the only governor for a while with a divided legislature, now there’s one other. I’ve got a Senate led by Republicans by just two seats and a House led by Democrats by just one seat. But this is an area where I’ve been able to bring Democrats and Republicans together in order to make progress in terms of passing this um, this permitting reform. And again, proof is in the pudding. What we are seeing is that businesses are coming here and the economy’s growing. Let me give you one more example. This may seem really small to you, but it’s a big deal, okay? When I talk about a permit, if you want to be a barber in Pennsylvania, you need a permit or technically it’s called a license, but I put it all under that umbrella.

David Sacks: 7:03 Yeah, some kind of certificate, yeah.

Josh Shapiro: 7:05 Right. The day I took office, it took 20 days for a barber to get their permit to be able to go out and cut hair. Today you get it same day, you get it within that day. That may seem silly to you, but but understand, I called my barber, I asked him, I said, ‘How many heads do you cut a day?’ He said, ‘About ten a day.’ At 20 bucks a pop, 200 bucks a day for for 20 days, that’s real money. That’s thousands of dollars that we’re putting into that barber’s pocket just because we got them their permit more quickly. So I know it may sound nerdy, it may sound wonky, but whether you’re building some big building that’s going to house hundreds of workers or thousands of people who are living there, or whether you’re the local barber that everybody needs to go to to get their haircut, this stuff matters. And the quicker you are, the more jobs you create and the more money you put in people’s pockets.

David Sacks: 7:57 It also matters I think on a philosophical basis of who is the government working for? Themselves and their timelines or for the people who put them in office? And I think that’s the philosophy, just at least watching it happen in New York and California, it’s the opposite of what you described. There’s no sense of urgency and there’s almost a situation where people believe it’s intractable that they can’t change it. And so that’s I think such an important point is that you actually made it happen.

Josh Shapiro: 8:27 I think that’s a great point and I want to focus on what you just said there. Um, first off, I I start the conversation believing that government can be a force for good in people’s lives. Second, that we gotta figure out a way to get to yes. Whether it’s building a building or whether it’s getting that mom the support she needs for her kid with autism who needs support. We gotta figure out a way to get to yes and get them um that help. And then you mentioned uh in your question, the way people get I I don’t recall if you used the word frustrated or or they feel, you know, um that government’s sort of holding them back, right? Not-

David Friedberg: 9:00 It’s impressive in a way, right? It’s just if you have that experience three or four times, whether it’s at the airport or getting your driver’s license or getting the hair cutting, you know, certificate, like it’s just oppressive over time. You just feel like the government’s working against you.

Josh Shapiro: 9:13 Yeah, what does that, what does that person feel? After the fifth time they try and get their permit, they can’t get it. They try to open up their small business, it won’t work. They get frustrated. By the way, they get pissed. And they’re not only are they pissed at that agency or that governor or they’re pissed at, you know, that state government. They also grow, and this is an important point, a little more cynical about government and a little bit more frustrated about the process. And when that happens, I think that that creates more distrust in our system and it creates more opportunity for I think, frankly, dark voices on extremes to come in and take advantage of people. I, I find that, you know, if we get it done the right way, if we process things quickly, if we get people to yes, then maybe a byproduct of that is a little bit less cynicism in our system.

David Friedberg: 10:04 Yeah, and, and the horseshoe theory that you’re kind of referencing there, these two extremes just taking over the conversation. That’s not what the majority of the country wants. They, they want to just live in a high-functioning society. I was curious how you look at fraud, um, waste, fraud and abuse. My friend Eli, to drop a name, you know, did this DOGE thing, it was a little controversial, but I think what we’ve seen is, hey, 20, 30% of every tax dollar collected is wasted. Some of it’s fraud, some of it’s just incompetence, could be anything on that spectrum. And this seems to be the Republican party’s rallying cry to beat the Democrats, going into California and prosecuting people, Michigan, etc. You have seemed to have gotten ahead of this, you’ve been doing this for years. So maybe you could explain your take on fighting fraud specifically, healthcare or in other areas.

Josh Shapiro: 10:57 Yeah. Look, I, I think we’ve got to focus on rooting fraud out of the system. Now, you and I may differ on, hey, should we spend a dollar on that initiative or not? And by the way, those are super healthy differences and we should argue that out, we should debate that. But where we should have no difference is if someone’s stealing that dollar instead of going to its intended purpose, we should be against that. And I am. Prior to serving as governor and having the privilege of sitting here in this office serving the good people of Pennsylvania, I was the state’s attorney general. And you’ll remember back during COVID, there were those PPP loans to help our small businesses and other businesses stay afloat. We’d probably agree, like, good idea, right? We got to keep businesses afloat. But during that time, I went out and prosecuted a whole bunch of people for stealing that PPP money, for not using it for its intended purposes. Here as governor, I’ve maintained a similar focus through my Office of Inspector General, rooting out fraud, through making sure we’re not front- It’s not you money when you’re going out and providing, say, human services. You have to submit for reimbursements and you’ve got to make sure you prove that you did that work. When we find that someone took advantage of the system, we’re referring them to prosecutors. I’m proud of the fact that we’ve had more Medicaid fraud prosecutions in Pennsylvania, I think, than any other state. Maybe there was one other, we’re certainly toward the top of that list. Proud of the fact that we’ve identified that, we’ve sent it to prosecutors and we’ve addressed it. If we can address it administratively, we do. If not, we understand that those things need to be prosecuted. We should have a zero tolerance policy for that. And we should make sure that if we’re going to utilize a hard-earned dollar of a taxpayer for a purpose like providing someone with healthcare that they need, we gotta make sure that that dollar makes its way to that person so they get their healthcare. And, you know, our folks are working really hard on that in Pennsylvania.

David Friedberg: 12:53 So pro-business, less regulation, lowering taxes, eliminating fraud, and all of this is just getting done in the state. And then, you know, the next piece that, at least in my community, people who are creators of businesses, venture capitalists, angel investors, founders, we pay our taxes, pay a lot of taxes depending on which state you live in. And then there’s this move—

Josh Shapiro: 13:21 You should be paying more taxes in Pennsylvania, man. Stop paying them elsewhere.

David Friedberg: 13:23 Yeah, well, and the— you know, we then get struck with this California law and a lot of my friends have moved to Austin, where I live now. They just said suddenly, ‘Hey, we want to seize 5% of whatever you got. You already paid your taxes, you haven’t paid capital gains on some of this equity you own in your company, maybe it’s paper wealth, maybe your company went public now and you could sell some of it, but you might crater the stock if you do.’ And Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and California, all trying to seize assets. And this has really hit the creator, the business creators in a really offensive way, to the point at which they’re moving. We lost, California lost Sergey, Travis from Uber, just fleeing, fleeing en masse in the last 12 months. Do you believe in these wealth taxes and do you believe in seizing people’s assets on gains they’ve never received? It’s a— it seems to be getting momentum.

Josh Shapiro: 14:24 I mean, I would just say we’ve cut taxes seven times in Pennsylvania. We’ve got one of the lowest income taxes in the entire country, that’s why I’m joking with you, you should come to Pennsylvania and locate here. And look, I mean, that kind of tax that you’re describing is not something we have here. It’s certainly not something on my agenda. I do think people need to pay their fair share. I think you’d agree with that. We need to make sure that we are easing the burden on those who are working and who are at the lowest, you know, sort of economic point on the scale. And we gotta make sure that folks at the top are paying their their fair share in order to— to sustain our society and I think we’ve struck a really good balance here in Pennsylvania and I think our growth numbers bear that out. I think seeing more people coming to the state bears that out. And I think there’s an important stat, one of the things you cited in those entrepreneurs as you were going through your question is, you know, these are people who kind of started with a dream, with an idea, that you know, some might’ve looked at and said, ‘Jeez, I don’t know about that,’ but they stuck with it and they built up their companies. We see here in Pennsylvania particularly when it comes to life sciences, right? We’re seeing people plant a flag here in Pennsylvania, start with an idea that others might think, boy, I don’t know about that, but then because of our tax environment in Pennsylvania, because of our pro-growth approach in Pennsylvania, we’re seeing more of those small businesses, more of those small companies, especially in life sciences, survive that sort of valley where a lot of those companies go out of business and sustaining themselves here because again, I think we’re showing that we’re pro-growth, we’ve got a smart tax environment for them. And by the way, after we invest in them, after we give them a shot, and after they do well, we expect them to pay their fair share back to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And I think that’s the approach we’ve taken and it’s working.

Jason Calacanis: 16:18 Yeah, and so if you’re not in favor of a wealth tax, what would you do to deal with maybe this disparity in wealth that we’re seeing? There was just some statistics that came up the other day, I’m sure you saw them. The upper middle class has just been surging, middle class going down a bit, and people in the lower rungs going down as well. So people may feel like they’re not making enough money, but in reality what’s happening is people feel other people have made a tremendous amount of money, which is true because of equity holdings are growing much better than salaries ever will and only 40% only 50% of the country really participates in a meaningful way in equities, the other 40, 50% don’t have any exposure to that. So how would you deal with somebody making, you know, a hundred billion dollars, 500 billion dollars, a trillion dollars and never selling their equity or maybe not selling it for 20 years? How do you think about that?

Josh Shapiro: 17:16 Look, let me make sure three points. A Pennsylvania point, then a couple broader points. One, you cannot have a national economy that works if it’s only working for the 1%. And you pointed out in your question the wage disparity and the disparity of income. You have to make sure that there is opportunity for those at all different income levels. And look, as we sit here today, if you’re making a million dollars versus $50,000, like a million dollars, you’re going to be able to buy some stuff that someone at $50,000 can’t buy, right? We sort of understand that, but you’ve got to have opportunity and you’ve got to have a level playing field and you’ve got to have a fair shot and you’ve got to have a tax system that works in a fair way. That’s sort of point one. Point two is here in Pennsylvania… We’ve tried to address some of that economic disparity by passing the first-ever working Pennsylvanian’s tax credit, sort of a state-side earned income tax credit. So what we’re saying is if you’re working, if you’re going out and busting your hump, we’re going to put some money back in your pocket. That 940,000, almost a million Pennsylvanians are going to qualify for a little over 800 bucks back in their pockets. So that’s going to help not only today with rising costs due to a lot of these federal policies, but it’s going to put money back in people’s pockets, allow them to make, you know, the investments they need to make in their everyday lives. Here’s the third point. What I would not do, because you asked what I would do, what I would not do is what President Trump did at the federal level with an aid and assist from a whole bunch of sycophants in Congress by passing that budget bill or the beautiful budget bill or whatever the hell they call it. In effect, what they did was they gave a tax cut for those who simply do not need it, right? And by the way, you know, in a palace of truth and justice, you talk to those folks, they know that they didn’t need that tax cut. And what happens as a result of that is I’ve got 500,000 Pennsylvanians who are going to lose their health care. I’ve got 120,000 who have already lost their health care, about another 320,000 or so were likely to lose Medicaid next year. I’ve got 26 rural hospitals that are likely to shutter because these are the rural hospitals that are working at an operating deficit and they’re relying so much on Medicaid which has been slashed by the federal government. So the idea that Donald Trump thought it was smart economic policy to give a tax cut to those who don’t need it and pay for it with those who are struggling where and create even greater economic disparities, that is going to hold back our entire economy. Just take those 500,000 people who aren’t going to have healthcare. You’re paying for that and I’m paying for that with our private insurance. So what Donald Trump has done is shifted that burden onto those who are struggling, making it harder for them, adding additional costs to the middle class. And I think that that is, that lacks, frankly, it’s just dumb economic policy and I think it’s going to set us back.

Jason Calacanis: 20:18 So here we are, politics is on the table. Incredible track record you have, but let’s dive into the Democratic Party. I’m an independent, but grew up Irish Catholic in Brooklyn, so grew up a Democrat, probably have voted, you know, 60/40 Democrat to Republican, but always for a moderate, somebody who can get stuff done, that’s why I find you quite appealing. But let’s talk about the Democratic Party and the shellacking they got in the last election. And specifically what really troubled me, Biden didn’t look like he was all there and I think we’ve all come to some consensus that he probably should have dropped out earlier. But what was really disheartening to me was that they didn’t do the speed run primary. They didn’t do, you know, a capsule primary. primary over that July-August period and gave you a shot, and other people a shot, Pritzker, Buttigieg, whoever, to compete for the nomination. Was that a huge mistake for the Democratic Party and when you look back on it, do you think that might have cost you all the election?

Josh Shapiro: 21:18 Well look, I mean I actually wrote about this in the book I recently published where, you know, it became clear to me that, you know, Joe Biden’s seeking another term was probably not in the best interest of the party or the country and I spoke to him directly about that and bluntly about that. Once he made the decision to drop out with a hundred and whatever days to go, you know, there were not many opportunities I think to have the kind of primary process that you’re talking about. I think it is important to look forward, right, and not look backward. And you said in the last election Democrats took a shellacking. Actually, if you look at 2023, it was the opposite. I mean, the president’s party, the Republican Party, got beat in New Jersey, got beat in Virginia, got beat here in Pennsylvania, where we won three State Supreme Court seats. So obviously there’s a pendulum in American politics and it’s clearly swinging back. I think what’s important is that we look forward and, you know, I think it’s also really important for our party, for my party, to have a real debate and to have a real discussion about ideas. What are we for and what are we willing to fight for? And I realize that process may at times look a little messy. I realize, and I mean this with the utmost respect, it gives folks like you on a podcast or on a show the ability to sort of pick apart, maybe try and, you know, sort of parse words or point one Democrat at another and try and create conflict. But I would just say that overall, having this debate and having these issues be raised and having disagreements, that’s healthy for our party. And ultimately, I think our party’s poised to take back power and that will make us better at governing. To me, the whole purpose of running in an election is getting the chance to govern, not just winning the election. And so having these debates right now puts us in a better position when we win those elections. And I’m running for re-election right now in Pennsylvania, gonna work my ass off to win another term and earn the support of the people of Pennsylvania again. And I want to continue to deliver, continue to focus on these issues that matter most. And having that debate I think is really healthy.

David Sacks: 23:22 Understand, looking forward is most important, but I got to go one more time in the rearview mirror here, which is Kamala Harris was picked because Biden had put out a criteria, ‘Hey, I want to have a woman of color as my vice president.’ He was very explicit about that. She could be qualified, unqualified, you know, moderately qualified. But then when she went out to pick her VP, everybody was saying, ‘Hey, Josh Shapiro should be really in that running,’ and she didn’t pick you specifically because she didn’t think she could win with a Jewish vice president. So…

Josh Shapiro: 23:52 Yeah, I don’t, respectfully, I got to push back on that. And again, I’ve been very, very open about this.

Jason Calacanis: 23:57 Push back on it. Let’s see.

Josh Shapiro: 24:00 You know, we’d be argument with you, but I, I was very, very detailed and very specific in my book about this process. And I was very grateful to the Vice President for being considered and grateful to her for the candid dialogue we had and about 48 hours before she picked Tim Walz, I pulled out and made clear that that was not something I was interested in doing. I thought I could serve the good people of Pennsylvania and do my best serving here as Governor in a job that I absolutely love. So this wasn’t about her not picking me because of my faith, this was about me in the end not being interested in that job.

Jason Calacanis: 24:30 Really?

Josh Shapiro: 24:31 Sincerely, yes.

Jason Calacanis: 24:32 Sincerely, yes? because it did seem like you wanted to be considered for that VP position.

Josh Shapiro: 24:43 I called Sunday evening after she and I met and had a really candid conversation to inform her that I did not want to be considered. I thought she had some really good people to choose from.

Jason Calacanis: 24:54 All right, so let’s move forward then, looking at winning. You’re going to run for governor again, assume that’s going to be a shoe-in, I- you know, you gotta do the work, but it’s pretty clear you’re going to win.

Josh Shapiro: 25:05 I appreciate your confidence there, my man.

Jason Calacanis: 25:07 No, it’s clear. But let’s talk a little bit about if you were to run for president, which people seem to think you’ve got a really good shot, but you’re below maybe national recognition right now or a little bit far behind. Gavin has come out, ‘hey, I’m running, I’m running, here I am,’ he’s obviously in the pole position for now. I want to understand the Democratic Party and how they should proceed, because just like the right seemed to separate and you had this MAGA coalition and you had, you know, traditional Republicans who were just aghast at Trump and his style and his behavior, etc. Now that seems to have fractured again. You have America First, America Only, all the supporters who were supporting Trump now have come out vocally against him because of the war in Iran. And then you have on your side this socialist Democrat movement, which I think a lot of moderates are like, ‘well, that’s confusing, we don’t want to have more Mondales’ and that doesn’t seem super appealing to a lot of moderates. And the moderates are the ones who flipped this election and they went with Trump largely, as opposed to going with Kamala. So handicap for me what has to happen in the Democratic Party to win in 2028.

Josh Shapiro: 25:55 I understand why you’re asking that and I will answer your question. I don’t think anyone should be looking past these midterms. And while I appreciate the confidence you have in me and maybe in the broader dynamics here, I think we need to have a national referendum in these midterms on what people see happening in Washington, D.C. The chaos and the corruption that exists there. I think people need to show up in record numbers and vote their concerns. And so I’m not looking past the midterms. I do think it is important that we acknowledge Donald Trump has injected… elected chaos and corruption into everything he touched. And I think it’s important for me, for other Democratic leaders in this country, to be able to show what calm, competent governance can actually deliver for people. That’s what I’m going to be talking about in these midterms as I seek reelection. I think it is important to paint an alternative picture to the chaos Donald Trump has created. One where you can actually grow the economy, you can make our communities safer. We didn’t talk about this yet, but we’ve hired 2,000 more police officers, invested in community violence prevention, and violent crime is down 12%. Fatal gun violence is down 42% in our Commonwealth. Um, we’ve invested in public education, and by the way, scores are up, truancy is down. Um, we’re moving up on the list, we’re about 10th um according to Consumer Affairs in the quality of public education. I think we’ve got to show that there is an alternative to Donald Trump’s chaos, to his cruelty, to his corruption, and you’re seeing that, um, I think certainly in my state, I think you’re seeing it in other states as well, and we need to paint that alternative picture.

Jason Calacanis: 28:14 So 20, 2026 is certainly going to be a referendum on the first two years of this presidency, which was extremely popular for the first nine months or so. People felt really good about the economy.

David Sacks: 28:28 Some people.

Jason Calacanis: 28:29 Well, I think his polling was great. But there was this tinge, I think it’s pretty accurate to say, that the tariffs felt like those were chaotic. Then you get the ICE situation, that feels very chaotic. Then you go to this war with Iran and that feels like a peak chaotic moment that we’re in here in week six of this. So it’s certainly going to be a referendum on Trump and it feels like all the Democrats have to do is sit back and say, like, look, is this what you want? Gas prices up, inflation. But you’re saying they have to paint another picture. Paint that picture for me, what is that picture?

Josh Shapiro: 28:58 Yeah, I think on both sides of what you just said, Donald Trump chose to push the tariff button, right? And as a result, here in Pennsylvania, what we’re seeing is coffee prices are up 30%, beef is up 19%, OJ, orange juice is up 9%. The fertilizers my farmers rely on here in Pennsylvania up 36%. So we’re seeing whether you’re a farmer, whether you’re, you know, a dad just trying to cook dinner for his kids, whatever the case may be, everything costs more because of the recklessness and the chaotic approach Donald Trump’s taken to our economy with these tariffs. Obviously, this war has spiked gas prices, up today about 4:15, 4:16 here in Pennsylvania, similar across the country. Probably years before those gas prices come down even if the war, you know, hopefully ends, you know, very, very soon. And so I think it is important, yes, to point that out, the way Donald Trump’s policies have hurt the American people, have grown government… hurt our farmers, have hurt our small businesses. The point I was making a moment ago is I think that’s part of the conversation. The other part of the conversation is okay, well, what are you doing to make people’s lives better?

Jason Calacanis: 30:11 Yeah, so what- so what should the top three things be? Like if you were running the Democratic Party and everybody got in a room and said, you know what, we really are going to take winning seriously, not get into this like purity test for everybody in the party and, you know, everybody’s gotta be perfect and Joe Rogan’s not good enough to go on air with because he’s a lifelong Democrat, but he said something about COVID we don’t agree with, therefore he’s out of the party.

Josh Shapiro: 30:36 I never said that.

Jason Calacanis: 30:37 I know you didn’t, but the Democrats did. And then oh, Elon Musk waited hours and had Obama at SpaceX and then all of a sudden he can’t come to the White House for the EV summit, the category he created. Like, it’s pretty obvious the Democratic Party had some real dysfunction in there in terms of building a bigger tent. And I can tell you I have never felt more courted in my life than the Republican Party trying to get me to be part of the Trump movement, which I demurred and declined, it wasn’t my style. But they are trying to build the biggest tent possible. They’re like, oh you agree with 14% of what we do? You’re in. Like, yeah. So walk me through what the top things should be. Yeah.

Josh Shapiro: 31:22 Okay, so let’s dissect that a little bit. First off, you attribute a number of things to Democrats that I didn’t say, so we’re- you’re here interviewing me, let’s focus on the things I say. Number two, they went and they courted you, and you demurred, but by the way, even had you not demurred, had you signed up, I don’t know that your life would be better off after a year and a half of Trump’s policies. What I am for here in Pennsylvania, the ultimate swing state, the toughest state to win in, an incredibly tough state to govern in, particularly with a divided legislature, I’m for investing in public education, giving every child of God an opportunity. I’m for safe communities and we’re building that here and we’re reducing crime in all of our communities. I’m for a pro-growth economy where we generate more energy, we generate more jobs, where we create more opportunities, particularly in our rural communities and forgotten communities that have been too often left behind. And here’s the fourth thing I’m for, I am for freedom. And I’ll tell you what, this President represents a party that used to be known as the party of freedom and now they have turned their backs on that. They want to tell my kids what books they’re allowed to read, they want to tell women what medicines they can take and what they can do with their bodies, they want to control the way I raise my child, they want to say, you know, every day that yeah, you can vote but we’re going to set the rules and try and rig ‘em in a way where you’re not going to be successful. They are not the party of freedom. And I think the Democratic Party has an opportunity to be the party of education, safety, economic opportunity and freedom. That’s what we’re doing here in Pennsylvania and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.

Jason Calacanis: 33:00 I think it’s a great platform. I would add to it housing. The thing I hear about from young people all the time is that, you know, just ‘I’ll never be able to afford a house, the American dream’s a bit of a scam and college is overpriced.’ So how do you think about housing and what is—is that an issue in your state or—

Josh Shapiro: 33:19 Let’s talk about housing. Let’s also talk about college because you raised both of them in your question and look, I mean that has disaffected, by the way, just like two generations who are like ‘you guys tricked us on housing, you told us we’d be able to get a home and you won’t sell your home, boomers, and and you told us we could always make more than our college education costs and that was a lie too.’ Yeah. When I was talking about economic opportunity it’s somewhat shorthand if you will for also being able to afford that community. Affording that community can be healthcare, it can be housing, right? But let’s talk about housing. Here in Pennsylvania, I’ve asked the legislature for a one billion dollar fund to be able to build more housing in Pennsylvania and repair existing housing. 50% of my housing was built prior to 1950. You can invest a few thousand bucks in a new boiler, a new roof, some new windows, actually keep people in their homes and not have to build new homes. We also have to eliminate, or damn near eliminate, the red tape that exists when it comes to building housing. We gotta be able to build this faster and so I put forth a regulatory reform plan to be able to build more housing. I think that is really, really crucial. And let’s talk about college for a minute. The first day I was governor, the first executive order I signed was to do away with the college degree requirement to work for state government. We have 80,000 employees. Damn near all now you do not have to have a college degree, other than say the doctors and lawyers and people like that who require advanced degrees. So now 60%, six-zero, 60% of all of our hires in state government don’t have a college degree. We followed up on that by tripling our funding for Vo-Tech and CTE in our high schools. Our fund—you know dramatically increasing our funding for apprenticeship programs. 62% of my adult population here in Pennsylvania do not have a college degree. So we need to make sure we’re investing in them so that they have opportunity. You want to go learn to be a welder? You’re going to make six figures working in a shipyard in South Philly. You want to go and you want to work on HVAC system? You’re going to work in some of our most complex life sciences construction jobs and you’re going to make six figures doing that. So for us, we fundamentally believe that you’ve got many pathways to opportunity here in Pennsylvania. For some, it’s going to college, great. And for others, if you choose not to go to college, that’s also great. We’re going to make sure that we pave the way for you and give you that opportunity.

Jason Calacanis: 35:51 Yeah, the generation tool belt movement is well upon us. People are starting to figure out going in debt 100 or 200k versus getting a plumber job— …carpenter job, HVAC, whatever, for six figures out of the gate is a much better opportunity.

Josh Shapiro: 36:05 Yeah, and to be clear, I’m not shitting on people that went to college. I went to college. I presume you went to college. But for too long, by the way, politicians in both parties defined success exclusively around the idea of you having to have a college degree. And then set up arbitrary barriers to entry. Hey, if you don’t have a college degree, you can’t apply here. What about the skills that you developed in the military? What about the skills you developed at a trade school or the skills that you developed working in the private sector? Those skills should matter. And now they do in Pennsylvania. And we’re no longer taking an elitist approach that shuts people out just because they don’t have a college degree. We’re giving them the keys to opportunity and we’re giving them opportunities to pursue more success here in Pennsylvania.

Jason Calacanis: 36:52 Does the socialist democratic movement worry you? Mondaire and the crew, and how do you think about that in terms of the party dynamics?

Josh Shapiro: 37:03 I mean, remember the question you asked me three or four questions ago about… you said, ‘Well, I only agree with 14% of what you agree with, you know, come join the party.’ Look, my view is that we’ve got to have a big tent. And my view is that we’ve got to have a real debate around different ideas. And just because I might not agree with you on these three things, I might agree with you on something else. Listen, I’m sitting behind my desk here in the governor’s office. This is where I negotiate bills and budgets and other things. If I threw everybody out of my office that I didn’t agree with 100% of the time, we’d never get anything done. When I sit down across the table from a Republican lawmaker, say, ‘What are the 10 things you want to accomplish?’ I tell him the 10 things I want to accomplish. And you know what? We’re not going to agree on all 10. But if we agree on three or four, I’d rather focus on those three or four things where we can find common ground than the five, six, seven things where we’re just going to disagree. And so I think if you want to make progress, you’ve got to figure out how to create, you know, majorities. Whether it’s a majority in the legislature to get a bill to my desk, a majority come election time to win an election, you’ve got to find ways to bring people together and find common ground and not just focus exclusively on our differences.

Jason Calacanis: 38:13 What’s your take on what’s going on in Congress, Senate in terms of Trump and getting alignment there? Because, hey, when you go to war, boy, you do tariffs. Um, this was something we had a consultation between these different branches of our government. And we had other presidents on the Democrat side, etc., you know, saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to just get rid of student loan. I’m doing an executive order.’ Curious your take on the balance of our, of our different branches of government and the lack of collaboration. Because this is particularly disturbing. We’re both Gen Xers. We grew up watching the Democrats and the Republicans argue, but then they all got together, had lunch, and they negotiated. Where is that esprit de corps of everybody rowing in the same direction for all Americans versus this toxic…

David Friedberg: 39:00 You know, we’re just going to block each other at every single turn and do character assassination at every single turn. It’s the most polarized of our lifetimes for sure.

Josh Shapiro: 39:09 I actually think the Congress of the United States, the leadership there, I mean they are frankly kind of sad pathetic people. And let me explain why, right? You put, what’s his name, Johnson in as Speaker, and he’s effectively a rubber stamp for anything Donald Trump wants. And by the way, whether you agree with Trump or not, I think you can agree that you’d like your member of Congress to at least meet the burdens that they have on them in the Constitution of the United States, which is to be a check, which is to be a separate branch of government and a branch of government that has meaningful responsibilities here. When the Congress of the United States walks away from their responsibilities, whether on tariffs or whether on declaring war, and ultimately just kind of empower the President—again, agree or disagree, obviously I have profound disagreements from the President on those things—then what you’ve really done is you’ve limited the power of the Congress and what you’ve really done is you’ve seen a whole bunch of people that put Donald Trump before the oath of office they take to the Constitution. And I think that’s just pathetic. By the way, why do these people work so hard to get to Congress, to move up in leadership, to do all the things they gotta do, and then give away their power to Donald Trump? That’s pathetic, and it’s weak. And I think our country is suffering as a result of it. Look, I’m here in Pennsylvania, where where it all began 250 years ago, and the brilliance of our founders was that they left so much of the work to the next generation and the generation after that to pick up the baton and continue to perfect our union. Our founders, though, always contemplated two things. One, that there would be honorable people in office. And two, that the people in office would exercise their power and be a check on one another. And in some cases, slow things down to make sure that bad things didn’t occur, bad things couldn’t get through the process. I think what Americans are confronted with now is a realization that we don’t really have all honorable people in positions of authority in the federal government. And that that checks and balance system that was constructed here in Pennsylvania is not standing the test of time because you’ve got these profoundly and pathetically weak people like Johnson and others who just simply give away their power to folks who are corrupt and to folks who are not acting in an honorable way.

David Sacks: 41:54 You keep bringing up that corruption, explain to me what corrupt things you know that the…

Josh Shapiro: 42:00 Trump administration has done. I think to me there has been an extraordinary amount of self-dealing. There has been a good bit of family members doing quite well in this in this environment. I think you’re seeing more and more people who have the president’s ear being able to lobby him at his swim club to get a pardon for someone that frankly doesn’t deserve a pardon. I mean I think the list goes on and on and on, but those are some examples that I think the American people see…

Jason Calacanis: 42:28 I mean those first two are tiny…

Chamath Palihapitiya: 42:30 …compared to, you know, taking a billion dollar jet from the Qataris and thinking there’s nothing attached to that, right? I mean I think that there’s just a lot of that that moves so fast that the American people are having a hard time keeping up with it, but there will be a reckoning on this one day.

Jason Calacanis: 42:46 Is it illegal? I mean… yeah. So on the pardons, I’m strongly agreeing. It feels like the pardon power is super abused. Is there a path to refine that tool? Because it relies on norms, right? And ever since Bill Clinton, you know, did some, you know, friends and then obviously Biden did his son and then Trump’s doing his, you know, folks. It feels like now this is just a get out of jail card. You come into an administration and then everybody from Fauci to, you know, Hunter Biden, everybody else is just going to get a pardon on the way out. How would you reshape that tool?

Josh Shapiro: 43:10 Well let’s be clear and I don’t think you’re suggesting this but, um, and I was critical of Joe Biden when he pardoned his son, right? I was critical of him publicly. What we are seeing under Donald Trump, you have to admit, is next level when it comes to the abuse.

Jason Calacanis: 43:38 I mean it’s on the way, it’s yes, it’s in the first year, it’s not on the last day even. It’s like an ongoing tool here. We had CZ who was a crypto person who got pardoned and Trump didn’t even know who he was. He was just like, ‘Yeah, I heard he’s a good guy.’

Josh Shapiro: 43:46 Right. I mean, I will tell you, I sit at this desk here and I sign pardons and clemencies and I take that responsibility so seriously. And I agonize over these decisions. And I pray that I get these decisions right. And I believe I have. And I’m transparent about why I viewed someone as worthy to get a clemency and also worthy of not getting one—or not earning one, I should say. And these are tough, tough decisions. Goes back to what I said a moment ago. Our founders, when they vested that kind of authority in an executive, didn’t necessarily do something wrong by giving the executive that power. But they were leaning on the assumption that the executive would be honorable. That the executive would… would… would do this with morality and real scruples in mind. And I think what we’re seeing with the president is if you saddle up to him at his swim club, you donate a certain amount of money maybe, or you have his ear for some other social reason, you can usually get him to do…

Jason Calacanis: 45:00 give a pardon to someone who’s important to you.

Josh Shapiro: 45:02 Yeah, the pardons definitely are super troubling.

Jason Calacanis: 45:05 How do you deal with the family members and the kids enriching themselves? Obviously nothing has been, uh, done by a court or an investigation into Trump’s kids at this point, so we just want to be clear about that. You know, we had Hunter Biden getting a ridiculous million dollar board seat. I’ve never seen anybody get paid a million dollars to be on a board. That was obviously corrupt in some way, or somebody trying to curry favor. Doesn’t mean the President Biden was, but it definitely was corruption there. How do you deal with kids of—and this has been going on for a while—these kind of allegations. If we if we can’t rely on honor and norms, is there another proposal here that the kids of, you know, people in office can’t make money? Your kids can’t make money. If I was running for office, my kids couldn’t make money in the free market. How do you—is there any kind of solution you can think of?

Josh Shapiro: 45:58 I think it’s important you cited Hunter Biden. They went through a legal process. There was an investigation by the Department of Justice. I think there has to be a real look, I say this as a former prosecutor, a real look at some of this stuff and follow the evidence, follow the law. And if charges are warranted, bring them. And by the way, if charges are not warranted, don’t bring them. Do not use the rule of law as a tool to go against, you know, political opponents in any way. But I think what you’ve got to have here are people who are operating with real morality. And you do have to figure out a way to operate within the norms again. I’m unwilling to accept that that is gone. It may be temporarily suspended under Donald Trump, but I’m hopeful that we can find our way back to that. Let me be clear about something else here, that finding our way back to that is a bipartisan exercise. It’s going to require Republicans and Democrats and independents, all of demanding when they go to the ballot box that we want to elevate people who are ethical, people who are honest, people who are focused on doing their jobs with integrity. And then when those people are in office, rewarded with the votes of the public and in these positions of public trust to hold them accountable as well.

Jason Calacanis: 47:15 And you believe that can happen in a post-Trump world?

Josh Shapiro: 47:19 I do.

David Sacks: 47:19 Yeah.

Jason Calacanis: 47:20 I strongly agree. Hey, it’s a year since your home was firebombed by an insane person who was anti-Semitic. Your faith comes up over and over again. I personally think people are a little obsessed with it. But here we are, and the Democratic Party’s been split apart as well over this support of Israel issue. You have a very nuanced position. Number one, how are you dealing with that personally, the anti-Semitism, which to me as somebody who grew up in Brooklyn with lots of Jewish friends and all kinds of different people, just insane to think that Jewish students are being or any particular group of students being chased by the other students at Columbia University because they’re Jewish and this chaoticness.

David Friedberg: 48:00 It’s just heartbreaking, but as a Jewish person and literally experiencing it firsthand, I mean, how are you doing with that?

Josh Shapiro: 48:09 Yeah, I appreciate it. Look, we should separate this and have two conversations. One about Israel and one about antisemitism because you kind of blurred both in that question. Let’s focus first on antisemitism. I have been very outspoken about those who are engaging in antisemitism, peddling words that are antisemitic, and importantly, I’ve been critical of people on the political left and on the political right. And I think antisemitism is a problem in our society, and it is a problem on the left and it is a problem on the right. And I think it is important that we call it out. To call it out whether we’re in an interview, not accusing you by any stretch—

David Friedberg: 48:46 Conversation, yeah.

Josh Shapiro: 48:47 Call it out when, you know, on social media, and then we just call it out in our communities, in our daily lives where we see it. On that, there should be no nuance. We should be able to come together, people who are Jewish, people who are Christian, Muslim, and all agree that hatred, bigotry in any form directed at a Jew, a Muslim, Christian, anyone, it has no place. And by the way, it makes us all less safe. And so we have to focus on speaking out against that. No nuance on that. On the issue of Israel, the Middle East, and the war in and around Gaza, there’s a lot of nuance there. I’m happy to answer your questions on that, but I think on the issue of antisemitism, we have got to be in a place where we universally condemn it. And I think what you’re seeing from some folks on the right and some folks on the left is they’ll only call it out if it’s said by a political opponent or someone they disagree with. And I, frankly, respect people on the right like Ted Cruz who have called it out within the Republican party. I’ve tried to call it out when it rears its ugly head in my party. It is important that it be universally condemned.

David Friedberg: 49:56 So easy to do. Let’s tackle the issue of Israel and, I would say, yeah, every Jewish person, Jewish-American person who I know, when I ask them about this issue, obviously, incredible tragedy October 7th, going and collecting the hostages seems like a reasonable thing to do. I was there for 9/11, you know, it seems like a pretty analogous situation. This has to be settled, and the United States went and did what it had to do in Afghanistan and took out Iraq for extra measure—it was a whole other diversion. But 100% of folks say they don’t agree with Netanyahu’s approach to what happened in Gaza. And then folks feel, a decent number of people, whether it’s reality or not, that America is getting dragged into this war with Iran, not under false pretenses, and because Israel is pushing us to do it. So let’s take these two issues separately, and I’m just curious in understanding your position on this. Are you part of the Jewish-American diaspora that believes, hey—

Jason Calacanis: 51:00 Israel’s right to defend itself but maybe Gaza went too far.

Josh Shapiro: 51:03 Okay. Well first off, um let me say this. I don’t view this issue as a Jewish American, as you said. I view this issue as an American. And I view this issue in a way of trying to understand what is the best thing for America, which to me is having peace and stability in the Middle East, okay? That’s how I approach these issues. It is, um, and I’ve been clear and consistent about this long before October 7th, that I think Netanyahu, the leader of Israel, um is someone who’s been leading Israel down a dangerous and isolated path. I think he has made Israel um more isolated in the world community. He has fractured really what used to be a non-partisan or bipartisan, um American support for Israel. And I think he has put Israel in a very dangerous place. And of course, he was the leader of Israel who wasn’t minding the shop when October 7th happened. So I’ve been very critical of Netanyahu for years and years and years. I’ve also for years made very clear that I think the America’s interest in the region should be for stability and peace. And that it would be my hope that you would have two states living peacefully side by side, Israel and a Palestinian state. Now, I realize that is a long way off given where we are right now. But it is clear that we need to work toward that, and obviously that Palestinian state cannot be led by Hamas, which is a terrorist organization, and there has to be some structure that is put in place in order in order to create that.

David Sacks: 52:48 As it relates to the war, which you also asked about in in your question, I mean this was a war of choice, the President never defined the objectives. It is clear he doesn’t know how the hell to get out of this. Um, we’ll see what he ultimately does with his big threats, you know, we’re we’re recording this on the eve of his big, you know, of his big threat…

Jason Calacanis: 52:49 Ultimatum, yeah.

David Sacks: 52:51 Ultimatum, using language that was so f***ing offensive, you’ll excuse my language, that diminished the value of human life. Um, we’ll see what he ultimately does, does he chicken out as he usually does or does God forbid he go through with that? But this was a war of choice, he didn’t know why he got into it, he doesn’t know how the hell to get out of it. America’s national security interests have not been well served by this and economically, you’ve talked about this, economically we are worse off um because of this war. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to go over you.

Jason Calacanis: 53:45 No, no, no, listen, I appreciate your candidness, Governor. Why did he do it? Handicap it, why… pardon me… why did he do it? If you had to handicap it or what are you hearing when you talk because you have obviously a lot more information than the average American. Why now? Why did we do this? Now, we had done, you know, the strategic trimming of the hedges, mowing of the lawn, whatever the term is, to get rid of the nuclear progress. That containment seemed like a perfect strategy, and then all of a sudden we decide we’re going to do regime change. This is after Trump promised that he would never get in a— would do an intervention like this in the Middle East. This is after we were told by the Republicans, ‘Do not vote for a crazy Democrat who will take us to war with Iran,’ and here we are in month 14 or month 13 of the Trump presidency, and he’s started a war. His own biggest advocates, from Megyn Kelly to Tucker Carlson and, you know, people on the fringe, Alex Jones, and everybody in the middle, the comedians who supported him, the podcast as-for— or the podcast bros— they’re all fleeing the ship. They did not want this. So here we are. Why did he do this? Why now? What is your handicapping on this?

David Sacks: 54:54 Well, I’ll answer that. I’ll just say it’s yet another broken promise to the people who put him in power.

Jason Calacanis: 55:05 Yeah.

David Sacks: 55:06 He screwed over the farmers who put him in power. He told people he wouldn’t slash Medicaid. He cut Medicaid. He told people he’d bring down prices. Prices have skyrocketed because of his tariffs. He’s got this long string of broken promises. Now, why did he break this particular promise? You know, let’s— let’s examine the record. First, Rubio went out and said he did it because if we didn’t move then Netanyahu was going to move and was going to force our hand. Then they walked it back. He said seven or eight months ago that they destroyed their nuclear capabilities. And then came back seven or eight months later and said we had to go in because we had to destroy their nuclear capabilities. I don’t know.

Jason Calacanis: 55:34 Yes, why?

David Sacks: 55:35 Then they said it was about regime change. Well, great. I mean, we went from like an 80-something-year-old Ayatollah to a 60-something-year-old Ayatollah who, by all accounts, seems to be far more hard-line. I’d hardly call that successful regime change. So to me, it is hard to— I think you’ve seen I’ve been trying to be very forthright answering your question.

Jason Calacanis: 56:11 You’re doing great.

David Sacks: 56:12 I don’t know how you answer that question because the President never answered that question. He never sat in the Oval Office and looked the American people in the eye and said, ‘This is why we’re going in.’ And you know what? This isn’t semantics. This isn’t politics. If you don’t know why you’re going in, you don’t know how the hell to get out. You don’t know how to instruct the military— our brave military— including those 13 souls who did not make it home to their families because they went on a mission that the President never defined. And we mourn their loss and we thank our military heroes for what they did and we thank our military who are out working every day on behalf of our freedom and our safety and our security, but they deserve a commander-in-chief who would have defined the mission. And if you define the mission, you know how to get out, and he never defined the mission. I don’t know ultimately… see if he will follow through on his threat again. It’s, you know, it’s Tuesday afternoon, you and I are talking. We’ll see ultimately what he does here. But, um, to me, this has been a failed and compromised mission from the beginning because he never made clear why he was going in.

Jason Calacanis: 57:15 Yeah, I know you gotta go in a moment. It does seem to me that first explanation, sometimes people hear their first reaction and their first statement is the true statement, uh, just in general. And it does seem like Israel was gonna do this and we joined them and we didn’t need to. And to your point, about-

Josh Shapiro: 57:31 No, and America should never, pardon me, America should never be led around by any other nation. It should always be about America’s interests, our national security interests, the interests of expanding freedom and opportunity for the American people. We should never, ever be bullied as maybe President Trump was by any other world leader.

Jason Calacanis: 57:52 Back to the antisemitism we’re experiencing now. You said, hey, let’s address them separately. But I don’t think you can separate them if we’re getting pulled into this war by another nation and people believe like you and I do, hey Netanyahu maybe went a little too far here. That is what’s causing the antisemitism in this country, don’t you think? This relationship with Israel, the state of Israel and Netanyahu, the- our undying support for Netanyahu, that’s not causing the antisemitism here? That’s what these young people seem to be saying is we don’t want to vote for somebody who supports Netanyahu.

Josh Shapiro: 58:14 Well, I think you gotta be real careful on that. Um, you, the collective, not you individually. I mean, if you’re suggesting say that Jews are Israel and reflect Israeli policies and support everything Israel does, I mean that’s one of the oldest antisemitic tropes out there. This sort of notion of dual loyalty. I think it is fair to vote on the issue of do we support what Donald Trump is doing relative to Netanyahu? That’s fair. But to suggest that somehow it’s, you know, because Jews are tied to Israel and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing-

Jason Calacanis: 59:04 Well, you and I can parse this issue I think very easily. But young people at Columbia or Harvard, where all this is going on and these, you know, pro-Palestinian protests are going on, they don’t seem to be able to make that parse. That seems to be one of the roots of the problems here is that people do put together-

Josh Shapiro: 59:22 Yeah.

Jason Calacanis: 59:22 These young people, they could be stupid, they could be misinformed, but they do put together what the state of Israel is doing and they equate it with Judaism.

Josh Shapiro: 59:31 And that’s why I’ve tried- and that’s why I’ve tried to be so outspoken on this and making clear that on antisemitism there should be no nuance. And that’s a conversation where we should all be able to unite. And that we have to protect a place for nuance when it comes to Mideast policy, when it comes to Israel, when it comes to Iran and, um, and anything happening in the Middle East. And we need to give space for those who want to peacefully, and I want to stress peacefully, protest. We want to give space to those who differ. From the administration and frankly those who support the administration to be able to go out and to protest peacefully. And that is, I think, an important part of the fabric of our American society. I just think it’s important and I try and do this work every day as governor, to keep those conversations separate, because when they get blended, that’s where I think it gets dangerous. And that’s where I think it really crosses a line into something we don’t want to see in our society.

Jason Calacanis: 60:27 And you can be super critical of Israel and you can love your Jewish neighbors and friends. These are this is a very simple concept here.

Josh Shapiro: 60:37 Absolutely. By the way, and I think that reflects where I am on many things. I’ve been super critical of the Israeli government, the Netanyahu government, and I’m someone who loves Israel. Someone who has spent time in Israel. I wrote a whole book about it, proposed to my wife there, and how I think the idea of it is important. We’ve got to figure out ways to keep those two conversations not not separate, but blurring the lines in a way that creates some dangers, I think is something we have to guard against.

Jason Calacanis: 61:09 Yeah. Lots of education, lots of opportunities. Josh Shapiro, thank you so much for coming on All-In and we look forward to having you on again and good luck with your race. Good luck with your 76ers. I will see you in the second round, it looks like.

Josh Shapiro: 61:26 Next year, or next time I’m on, I’ll be wearing a Sixers hoodie. So…

Jason Calacanis: 61:29 Okay. Go Nix.

Josh Shapiro: 61:30 I’ll see you courtside, my friend. Do you go to the games?

Jason Calacanis: 61:33 I’m going all in.