Speaker
Dave McCormick
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Senator McCormick stated the US is only 6 to 8 months ahead of China in the AI race, making any slowdown — like a data center moratorium — potentially catastrophic.
At McCormick's Energy Innovation Summit in Pennsylvania last July, $92 billion of investment was committed by energy and AI companies.
Pennsylvania fentanyl deaths fell from 4,000 in Biden's last year to 1,600, a roughly 60% decrease, which mirrors national trends.
McCormick's Senate race cost a total of $500 million — $200 million on his side, $300 million on the opposition's — setting a record.
McCormick noted that the median income in Pennsylvania is $52,000 a year, underscoring the economic anxiety felt by working families.
A Homer City, Pennsylvania coal plant is being converted to natural gas, producing 4.4 gigawatts — 3.4 GW for a data center complex, 1 GW back to the grid.
McCormick said Pennsylvania has the fourth-largest natural gas reserves in the world — if it were a country, it would rank number four globally.
Seasoned welders and electricians in Pennsylvania are earning more than $100,000 a year at data center and energy project sites, with demand outstripping supply.
The Pennsylvania Trucking Association estimates approximately 2 logistics jobs are created for every single direct job in a data center.
McCormick estimated that despite initial fierce opposition, approximately 80% of Pennsylvanians now support fracking, 15 years after the battles over shale development.
Two Pennsylvania senators — one Democrat, one Republican — argue that bipartisanship isn't naive, it's necessary. Pennsylvania's diverse electorate, spanning urban Democrats and rural Republicans, forces politicians to build broad coalitions or lose. They both flipped their respective Senate seats by rejecting extremism, and they argue this model is the blueprint for the rest of America.
A candidate with a literal Nazi tattoo on his chest is polling viably in Maine. Fetterman calls it an outgrowth of backlash to extreme partisanship — and warns that when mainstream Democrats shrug off this kind of candidate, something has gone deeply wrong. McCormick adds that the Democratic Party's lurch toward Marxism and antisemitism validates and mirrors this extremism.
Primaries don't select the best candidates — they select the most extreme. Fetterman says opening primaries would be as important as getting money out of politics. Meanwhile, McCormick's Senate race alone cost $500 million, and Fetterman's cost $330 million — all of it largely spent destroying reputations rather than building policy.
Fetterman delivers a scorching critique of the Democratic Party's Trump Derangement Syndrome — saying campaigns are literally built around 'fuck Trump' rage bait. He refuses to be defined by opposition and says if Democrats despise Trump more than they fear Iran going nuclear, that's a catastrophic failure of priorities.
In 2022, every Democrat wanted to kill the filibuster. By 2025, they love it. Fetterman admits his party was completely wrong and credits Manchin and Sinema for holding the line. Without the filibuster, the Senate becomes just a smaller House — and majority rule in a hyper-partisan era would be catastrophic.
The US is only 6 to 8 months ahead of China in the AI race. A Democratic push for a data center moratorium would hand that lead to Beijing. Fetterman calls it a 'China first' policy and says the choice is binary: America builds the AI chassis, or China does.
$92 billion of investment committed at McCormick's summit. Welders and electricians earning over $100K a year. Data centers generating 2 logistics jobs for every direct job. Pennsylvania is experiencing a genuine blue-collar construction boom, and the trades are all-in.
Opposition to data centers isn't just NIMBYism — McCormick says it's largely being driven by China and outside forces funding misinformation campaigns. The playbook mirrors the anti-fracking campaign from 15 years ago. Then it took 15 years to get to 80% public support. The US doesn't have 15 years in the AI race.
McCormick is blunt: the last 10 years were the greatest decade in human history for asset owners, and a disaster for the median Pennsylvania worker earning $52,000 a year. He says capitalism will be lost unless wealthy people voluntarily direct capital toward opportunity for others — not through government, but through choice-based programs like Invest in America accounts.
Fetterman says he can be primaried for supporting Israel, opposing government shutdowns, or refusing to call Trump a Nazi — and he doesn't care. A seat worth keeping only if you lie for it isn't worth keeping. He votes 93% with Democrats but refuses to let the party define him by its most extreme positions.
Fetterman says he's the only Democrat who agrees with holding Iran accountable militarily. His logic: $5-a-gallon gas is temporary. A nuclear Iran is permanent. If Democrats despise Trump more than they fear a nuclear Iran, that's a failure of prioritization that will have global consequences.
Friedberg poses the empirical case that more government spending makes markets less efficient, more expensive, and less accessible — the opposite of what Congress believes. He says every time he visits DC he leaves unhappy because every person in Congress thinks the answer is always 'do more.' Neither senator fully disagrees.
Analysis
What they talk about
- Business 67%
- Technology 33%
Connections
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