-How are you? -I'm -- I'm great.
I, uh -- [ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah! -Very happy you're here.
-I just met Fred Armisen... -Yeah.
-...backstage before the show started.
And always been a huge fan of his,
including a cover that he did of The Clash's cover,
"Police on my Back,"
which just blew my mind when I saw on YouTube.
So, honored to be with you, Fred, yeah.
-Thank you. -Yeah, and this is a real thing
about you that you are a great lover of punk rock.
You were, in the '90s, a punk rocker.
Fair to say?
-I'd like to think somewhere inside I still am.
-Yeah. -Seth, yeah.
-Do you think the punk rocker that is still inside you
is surprised that you, the outside you,
is running for president? [ Laughter ]
-Maybe just a little bit, but I'll tell you,
this campaign, at its best,
has a do-it-yourself ethic and spirit.
We don't take a dime from a single
political action committee or corporation
or special interest or lobbyist.
It's all people, all the time,
driving from one town to the next, showing up,
telling our story but listening to the stories of others,
which was kind of like touring in a punk rock band
in the 1990s -- [ Laughter ]
A little bit. -Yeah.
Probably a nicer car situation. -Yes, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
We were touring in a -- We called it the Lumber Wagon.
It was a station wagon with four guys, our amps,
the drum kit, and maybe one change of clothes per person.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And then on the road for the entire summer.
But one of the best ways to spend that part of our lives,
and it's still with me. It's still with me.
-That's fantastic. I also want to ask,
you were in Brooklyn last night doing an event.
You used to live in Brooklyn. -Yeah.
-Is this a true story that you had a trampoline on your roof
that you got from Busta Rhymes? -So --
[ Laughter ] [ Cheers ]
-And now, again, I -- By the way, I get that this
is a thing that a lot of candidates have.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
The answer is "yes." So, a roommate of ours,
it was either Dylan or Stephan,
was working on the set of a Busta Rhymes video.
-Uh-huh. -Somehow came home
with a trampoline and then managed to assemble it
on the roof of the building that we were living in
on Wallabout Street in Williamsburg in 1996.
And it doesn't sound like the safest thing in the world,
but here we were, jumping on a trampoline
on the top of a building. Everyone survived.
-I'm sure -- By the way, I'm sure
Busta Rhymes checked it to make sure it was safe.
I mean... -Totally, yeah.
-If you're gonna get one
that you can trust for safety, that's it.
-Busta Rhymes, every time. -I want to ask,
'cause we're coming up next week,
another round of these debates.
10 candidates, two different nights.
And it does seem like one of the hardest parts
is sort of differentiating yourself from other candidates
with whom you share a lot. Obviously.
You ran against Ted Cruz in a Senate campaign.
Do you ever miss how easy it was to be different from Ted Cruz?
[ Laughter and applause ]
-Where is Ted Cruz when you need him?
-Yeah, exactly. [ Laughter ]
-You know what? -Very rarely uttered,
and yet here we are. Yeah.
[ Laughter, cheers, applause ]
-True. It's true.
You know, what was so great about that campaign in Texas,
beyond getting a chance to run against Ted Cruz,
was running in a state that had been taken for granted.
Really written off. Ranked 50th in voter turnout.
And in addition to getting to debate him,
we went to every single one of the 254 counties in that state.
So, no matter how big or blue, we showed up
because we didn't want to take you for granted.
No matter how small or red or rural, we showed up there, too,
because we didn't want to write you off.
Some places had voted for Donald Trump 96%
in the 2016 election.
One place, Archer County, that we went to,
no candidate from Senate from either party
had shown up in 70 years when LBJ dropped out of the sky
in a helicopter in 1948,
landed on the courthouse grounds,
and walked over to the American Legion Hall.
It had been that long since anyone
had shown up to listen to them.
So that was what was so exciting.
And at the end of the day, we turned out in record numbers.
Won more votes than any Democrat had
in the history of the state of Texas.
So it was really an extraordinary election.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-And you won a lot of -- I think --
I think it was almost about a half a million votes
of people that voted for Greg Abbott, a Republican...
-That's right. -...who also voted for you.
So, this is, I think, one of the reasons why
there was enthusiasm for the idea of you running
is maybe you can connect people who don't agree usually
with a Democratic candidate.
Obviously, there's a scalability question with the United States
versus -- I mean, again, don't get me wrong,
Texas is pretty impressive, as far as size,
but is that your plan here,
is just to sort of get wheels down everywhere you can?
-Absolutely. That's the consistent theme,
from being on the road with the guys in the band 25 years ago
to being on the road across 254 counties of Texas
to this weekend being at The Diving Elk,
a great bar in Sioux City, and taking questions from people
who were there, introducing myself,
and then going to Sioux Center, which is one of the most,
if not the most, conservative places
in the state of Iowa and not writing anybody off
and not asking, "Who did you vote for
for President last time? What party do you belong to?
Who do you pray to, or who do you love?"
Non importa. I do not care.
Just tell me what's important to you right now.
We're Americans first before we're anything else.
And I got to tell you, in addition to showing up
with the courage of our convictions
and talking about what we want to see for America,
I'm learning so much by listening to people
about what's important to them in their lives.
And they never ask about polling.
They never ask about fundraising.
They don't care about the horse race.
They want to know how they're gonna afford
prescription medication or how we're gonna get
mental healthcare not as a function of luck or fortune
but as a human right that every single American can depend on.
And I think that's something that unites us
across the differences that we have in this country right now.
[ Cheers and applause ]