Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / Democrats Distance Themselves from Hasan Piker, Hunter Biden Embraces Him

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Democrats Distance Themselves from Hasan Piker, Hunter Biden Embraces Him · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to Greg Karambas of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: National Review. Three Martini's coming up. So glad to have
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: you with us for the Thursday edition of the Three
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Martini Lunch. And Jim, this was as predictable as anything
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: could be predictable for the 2026 cycle. You know, you
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: got all these Democratic primaries. Most of them are over now.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: And of course, you know, the energy is with the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: either DSA or DSA-friendly type candidates in all these different places.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And so they bring in their really progressive or even
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: socialist surrogates. And well, Hassan Piker was that guy, most
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: specifically and prominently in Michigan, but a lot of other
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: places as well. And now as they're heading into the
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: general election, the Democrats are trying to say, I don't know,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: that's not who we are. We're not affiliated with him,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: not at all. In Michigan, Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell was,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I think, at an Abdul for Senate function, or maybe
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: it's just a larger Democratic event. Nonetheless, she is tired, Jim.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: She's tired of so many people making this campaign about
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Hassan Piker.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I'm done.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: So don't any reporter ask me again about Hassan Piker.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: It's not what November is about. Republicans are trying to
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: make it. They're trying to divide us. And we got
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: to stop letting them try to divide us. I don't
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: agree with Hassan Piker on a lot of stuff. And
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: I really don't agree with him on some of the
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: woman things he said.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: And I'm still trying.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: To figure out, is it the reason he exercises and
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: looks buff is.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Why he has so many followers?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: So it's the Republicans who are trying to divide people
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: by mentioning Hassan Piker, not the people who literally brought
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: him in and have pictures of themselves fist bumping Hassan
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Piker like Abdul Al-Sayed does. And so Jim, this is
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: rich of them trying to now backtrack from what got
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: them where they are.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Greg, I don't want to be ageist, but I will
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: simply observe that after announcing she's not going to answer
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: any questions about Hassan Piker, she then talks about Hassan Piker.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: And she kind of in the process acknowledges that this
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: guy has some controversial statements, more than controversial, I'd say.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: heinous statements, i.e. America deserved 9-11, things like that. She
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: objects to some of the stuff that he said about women. Fine,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: I think we probably could agree on that, Ms. Dingell.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I also noticed you're noticing his biceps and you're noticing
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: his physique and things like that, which is not really
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: dispelling the stereotypes people have about women, but fine, fine, whatever,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you know. But I also kind of observe that there's
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: a very easy, I notice no one is asking Mike
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Rogers about his decision to campaign. with Hassan Piker because
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: he didn't. Why is Abdul Al-Sayed and why are Michigan
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Democrats getting all these questions about Hassan Piker? Because he
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: chose to campaign with him on not one, but several
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: stops on college campuses. When you do that, you accept
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: the consequences of that. And what are the consequences are
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: reporters asking things like, do you agree with Hassan Piker's
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: statement on America Deserved 9-11? Jews invite anti-Semitism upon themselves
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: by defending Israel. This guy talks live streams for eight
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: hours a day. Unsurprisingly, he says lots of controversial things.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: I put this question out there on X the other day.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: You and I do our podcast 20, 30 minutes, 40
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: minutes if it's really long. A lot of days, we
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: don't say things that we regret. And in fact, you know,
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: very often I will say things that you regret, but nonetheless, otherwise,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: you know, if we talk for eight hours a day,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the odds of us saying something that would come out
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: wrong or, like, would probably greatly increase. So, like, maybe
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: you shouldn't do that. Maybe you should not talk in
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: front of a camera for eight hours. Or if you do,
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: you should accept that. Also, you should not be a
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: hateful anti-Semite, but I figure with a sun tiger, that's,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: now I'm asking for too much. But I just kind
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: of think that, like, you know, if you, these are
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: all predictable problems, right? And when she says the Republicans
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: are trying to divide us, boy, it's a good thing
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: the Democrats never do anything like that. Like whether or
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: not you're divided, it's kind of up to you. It's
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: up to you. But also, like, why are these Republicans,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: you know, why are they pouncing, to use the favorite
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: verb of the mainstream media, to point attention, call attention
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: to the controversial things that this guy is? And if
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: you want to say, oh, he's just some random Twitch streamer,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: who cares? Well, OK, but again, the moment he gets
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: invited onto the campaign trail by the candidate, he becomes
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: a quasi-official spokesman of the party. He becomes much more
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: than just some random person on the internet ranting or
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: something like that. So, you know, Demi Dingle, you guys
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: are in this mess because of the decisions of Abdul Al-Sayed. And,
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: you know, you can't, you know, you can say, I'm
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: not going to answer those questions. But if you say
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: you're not going to answer those questions, talking about it
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: for the next few minutes probably does not, you know,
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: you're not making it seem like it's not newsworthy. But
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: then the second thing is that, like, you can't say
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: to the media you're not allowed to ask that question. Yes,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: they are. And unsurprisingly, the fact that, you know, Democrats
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: for Rogers exists is an indicator that there are Democrats
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: in this world, particularly Jewish ones, who look at El-Sayed's
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: association with Hassan Piker and say, no, no, no, I
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: can't vote for a guy who's such an outspoken anti-Semite
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: like this.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: It's incredible. And Debbie Dingell is in an interesting position
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: herself because the big movement in the Democratic Party, especially
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: with the increasingly socialist left, is we need a generational
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: change here. We need an overhaul. We need a different
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: type of politics. That congressional seat has been in the
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Dingell family forever. for 94 years. John Dingell Sr. won
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: it in 1932, the same year FDR was elected to
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: his first term. He served till the mid-50s in the House, died.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: John Dingell Jr. won the seat, held it for nearly
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: 60 years. He died in the House, and now his
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: wife is currently holding that seat. So I don't think
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: she's exactly the picture of what the Democrats want, but
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: somehow she's skated through the primary here. But just so
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: you know the background on that story.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: Did she ever attend a No Kings rally? No.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Probably. Oh, man. Anyway, real quick here. Hunter Biden is
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: still trying to be in public. And he went on
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: the podcast with the excreble Rick Wilson, formerly a Republican
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: campaign strategist, not a particularly good one. And then now
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: he's a Lincoln Project guy who still pretend to be Republicans,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: but do all their work on behalf of Democrats and
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: don't do that work particularly well either. They're now looking
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: at the value of Hassan Piker on the left.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: I turn on these shows and it's like a circular
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: firing squad because we wanted, they end up talking about
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: Hassan Piker for 45 minutes. You know what Hassan Piker did?
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: Hassan Piker is a live stream guy that has been
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: doing it for, I don't know how many years. And
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: he has thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: him just into a microphone, by the way. But at
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: the same time, You know what Hassan Piker's done? He
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: has created a little bit of a movement of a
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: group of people that are absolutely opposed to the fascism
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: of Donald Trump. And you know what? I want to
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: tap into that. I don't want to opt out of it.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: I want to figure out with Hassan Piker whether or
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: not we can find common ground and fight against the
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: same enemy. Instead, what these guys are doing is he's
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: a virulent anti-Semite and everybody's this, that, and the other thing.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: And it's just like, and he said this about 9-11
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: and he said that. It's like, my God.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Why are we focusing on the fact that he's a
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: virulent anti-Semite and thinks we deserve 9-11? Why can't we
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: find more common ground with this guy? Remember, Rick Wilson
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: was the guy in 2002 who ran ads against Max
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Cleland in Georgia on behalf of Saxon B. Chambliss, who
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I wanted to win, that Max Cleland, a triple amputee
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Vietnam veteran, wasn't tough enough on Islamic terrorism to Now
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: he's nodding along as Hunter Biden is like, why can't
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: we find more common ground with this guy?
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Greg, I just want to clarify. Rick Wilson and Hunter
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Biden are arguing that Hassan Piker is just trying to
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: get attention. I guess game does not respect game. I guess,
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: you know, grifter competition. Really, really tough. The other observation
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to observe there as Hunter Biden gets older. God,
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: does he look and sound like his father? And like,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: there's something, you know, a little bit spooky about that.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: The voice, the cadence, the tone of all that. But again, yeah,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: like for obvious, like if I don't, I don't care
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: if you are a, first of all, if you're a
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: down the line Reaganite, you know, look at the poster
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: over on my wall. If you agree with me on
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: all the issues, but you blurt out America deserved 9-11.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: We're going to have some problems. I cannot support you.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I cannot say, ah, let's find our common ground. There
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: are certain things in life that you're, you know, draw
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: swords over or them's fighting words. America deserved 9-11 is
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: one of them. And if you say, unless you've got like,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: I was smoking crack or something, some explanation that Hunter
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: Biden would understand and relate to or something like that.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: I'm not interested in finding common ground if you've said
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: things like that. I think there are certain things that
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: are just beyond the pale, and this would be one
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: of them. I think his argument that Jews invite anti-Semitism,
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: hell no. There's a whole bunch of reasons to look
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: at this guy and say, I don't want him anywhere
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: near my Senate candidate. But if you're a Democrat in Michigan,
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: it's a little late.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Wilson and Biden just scrounging at the bottom of the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: political barrel these days.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: We're talking about like Wilson and Biden. You're talking about
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: some awful presidents. Seriously. All right.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about something that's hopefully doing way better
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: than the Democratic Party trying to distance itself from Hassan Piker.
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• 10:53
  Speaker 1: to our next martini. I think that was our crazy one.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: This is our bad one. And we know Jay Jones
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: as attorney general is going to be grist for a
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: bad martini. One of the first things Governor Abigail Spanberger
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: did upon becoming governor, to no one's surprise, was to
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: reverse Glenn Youngkin's orders that local law enforcement need to
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: cooperate with ICE to get criminal illegals out of the country.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: She said she signed this and says, no, no, no,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: no more. No more requirement to work with ICE. That
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: is bad enough, but what about those who still decide
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: to work with ICE? Now they're getting harassed by a
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Jay Jones. Fox News reporting that Jay Jones is under
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: fire for launching a civil rights investigation into a rural
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Virginia sheriff who cooperated with ICE on traffic stops, while
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: simultaneously Jay Jones is suing to block the Trump administration
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: from accessing commercial driver's license records to crack down on
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: unqualified truckers. This is happening in Greene County, Virginia. where
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Sheriff Steve Smith's deputies detained dozens of people in a
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: single operation back in June near the crossroads of U.S.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: 29 and U.S.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: 33.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: They say they nabbed an MS-13 gang member in a
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: separate 26-arrest sweep, but Jones is demanding the sheriff's records,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: alleging constitutional violations in the stops. Here is Virginia House
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: of Delegates Minority Leader, meaning Republican, Terry Kilgore.
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: That's just this whole administration's modus operandi to say, To
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: put it bluntly, they they are so mad at Trump.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: They want to make sure they don't want to cooperate
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: with Trump on in any area whatsoever. And they want
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: to make it unsafe for Virginians. So I applaud the
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: sheriff of Greene County for working with us to make
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: sure that we don't have illegals on our roads, illegals
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: out here committing crimes and things of that nature.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Unlike our attorney.
• 12:41
  Speaker 5: General, who's the chief law enforcement officer.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Of our state.
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: Out here picking fights with sheriffs over illegal immigrants.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Jim, it's really beyond the pale when the Democrats are
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: honestly siding with the criminals. And of course, for those
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: who don't remember, Jay Jones was the guy last year
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: who got into a whole heap of trouble during his
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: attorney general campaign after texts from a few years earlier
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: where he told another member of the House of Delegates
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: where he was serving at the time that he had
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: fantasies about the Republican at that time, the Speaker of
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the House, getting two bullets to the head. And the
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Speaker's wife having to hold dead children so they could
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: advance gun control legislation. So a real winner and probably
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: not a huge surprise here.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So first of all, I want to say good job,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: Sheriff of Greene County and other law enforcement agencies that
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: are trying to enforce immigration laws. and get illegal immigrants removed.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: But I just want to be careful. Guys, be very
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: careful messing with Jay Jones, because he'll kill you. He's
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: just a stone cold, crazy killer, wants to see children die,
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: wants to put two bullets into your head. This guy's crazy.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: So just be careful. Really, somebody should do something about
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: that guy. Probably our chief state law enforcement. Oh, wait,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: he is the chief state law enforcement officer. But there's
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: one other aspect of this, the entire Spanberger policy that
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I've been thinking about with him, I want to say
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: it was JFK and LBJ. Forgive me if I'm misquoting.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: There was some version of, why are you bringing this
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: guy into your administration? And the gist was, I'm going
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: to clean up the tent urinating out than outside the
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: tent urinating in, right? If you are a Democratic governor
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: and you don't like the Trump administration's ICE policies, well,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: you can refuse to cooperate and be an outsider and say,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: this is bad and we're not going to Or you
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: can be inside the tent and you can say, yes,
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: in fact, I want all state and local agencies to
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: cooperate with ICE as much as possible. And in fact,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: we want a partnership and to take a role in this.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: And when you're in that, one, you've got a lot
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: of state and local law enforcement. So if ICE is
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: doing something abusive, we'll be in a position to see
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: it and report it and perhaps get some sort of
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: consequence to that. But even just alternately, if the argument
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: of the Spanberger administration is not We just don't believe
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: in removing illegal immigrants. If it really is, we think
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: you're prioritizing Manuel the Busboy instead of the MS-13 members
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: and the danger ones. Well, wouldn't you rather have local
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: law enforcement coming up and saying, well, actually, we know
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: where MS-13 guys hang out. Let me help you, you know,
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: let me steer your efforts in the direction of the
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: most dangerous criminals instead of, we think you're going to
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: go after ones who are no threat to the community. So,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: you know, like... Partnership, you can get some influence through that. Now,
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I'm sure obviously feds are going to say, this is
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: our operation, we're going to do it our way. But
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: at least if you begin to, if you have that partnership,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: the odds of having some influence of the outcomes increases
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: at least a little bit. And the attitude, but of course,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: because of this all or nothing attitude amongst so many Democrats,
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: that immigration enforcement itself, ipso facto, is immoral and wrong
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: and violates the legal statute of the inscription of the
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: Statute of Liberty. which overrules federal law, as we know.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: There's just this attitude of you've made the decision to
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: not be a part of this process. Ergo, you have much,
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: little or no influence over the outcomes of this process.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: If you'd chosen to participate, if you'd chosen to work
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: in partnership, maybe you'd have a bit more, you'd be
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: able to say, oh, let's steer the resources in this
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: direction in terms of folks that we genuinely think should
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: be removed. Although, Greg, I assume, I recognize that entire
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: philosophy assumes that Democrats want to remove anybody.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: No, they don't. They don't. They never want to. And
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: so they'll claim that they want to, and they'll say
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: that ICE is not prioritizing, but anytime that there's a
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: legal challenge to any of these deportations, they're always on
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: the side of the person staying in the country. And
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: so they won't even really give Trump much credit. Some
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: will here and there about improving the situation at the border,
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: which tells you what would happen if Democrats had control
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: of the White House and probably Congress again. So Again,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: good work there in Greene County, Virginia. And no surprise
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: about Jay Jones. He is who we thought he was.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: And we let him off the hook.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly right. Speaking of Greene, yeah. Well, you never
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: think about your plumbing, your water heater, or your sewer
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: line too much until you think something might be wrong
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: with it. And then you're thinking, oh boy, this is
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: going to cost me. And if you're prepared with a
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: deal with HomeServe, then you don't need to worry at all.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: They got plans starting at $ 4. 99 a month. So when
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: something does go bad, you're not stressing about it, whereas
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: someone in your neighborhood with the exact same problem could
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: be looking at thousands in repairs.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Homeowner's insurance is going to cover really big disasters, but
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: the day-to-day wear and tear, plumbing failures, HVAC breakdowns, electrical issues,
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: home insurance is not going to cover that stuff. And
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: that's why you need HomeServe. With nearly 4.5 million customers
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: and a 4.7 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot and
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: A-plus from the Better Business Bureau, they are the real deal.
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, as I've said, we had a neighbor who had
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: a problem with one of their water lines or sewer
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: lines going in and out of the house, and they
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: had leaks all over the sidewalk and so forth. And
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: we're like, oh boy, that's going to be expensive. They said, no,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: we've got HomeServe.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Mrs.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Kremes and I signed up for it immediately. It makes
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: so much sense, so much peace of mind. So your
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: next costly home repair is already coming, but act now
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• 17:56
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• 18:00
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• 18:04
  Speaker 1: for 50% less savings compared to renewal price void in Florida. Well, Jim,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: we know the Republicans have to play a lot of
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: defense this year in the midterm elections, particularly as it
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: relates to the Senate seats. But the House seats are
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: probably even a bigger challenge. But, you know, we're playing
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: defense in Maine. We're playing defense in Ohio and Alaska
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: and so many different other states around the country. We
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: thought Georgia might be a pickup. That's not looking great.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Michigan is probably the brightest pickup. But we also got
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: a poll yesterday from the University of New Hampshire showing
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: that if the election were to be held today, Republican frontrunner,
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: because they haven't had the primary yet, John Sununu, former
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Senator John Sununu, not the guy who was chief of
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: staff for George H.W. Bush, but his son, who had
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: been in the House and in the Senate, holds a
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: two-point lead over pretty darn far-left Congressman Chris Pappas. Now,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: it's just a two-point lead. Pappas has led in other polls.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: It's a midterm year that's not generally trending in the
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Republicans' direction, probably. So don't chalk this up as anything
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: in terms of a victory yet. But if it's very
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: competitive and the Democrats have to spend a ton of
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: money there, and John Sununu, I think, is a much
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: better candidate than Chris Pappas, you just never know. But
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: at the very least, the Democrats have to spend a
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: lot of resources there, and that's a good thing.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So first of all, Greg, now that we've decried
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: the Dingle dynasty out in Michigan, aren't the Sununus awesome? Yeah.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: I say that somewhat tongue in cheek. Actually, I've had
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: the elder John Sununu met him on a national review
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: cruise and I was able to introduce him. But as
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: far as I know, he is the only White House
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: chief of staff to be featured in a Naked Gun
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: movie or at least an impersonator. of him, John Sununu,
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: the Bush impersonator doing that. The younger one, this is
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: where I'm obligated to say Chris Sununu has been one
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: of the eight guests on this program. So always appreciated that.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: And look, this is kind of exactly what Republicans needed. Now, again,
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: As you mentioned, it's one poll. It's a two-point lead.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: We don't want to, you know, make a mountain out
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: of a molehill here. But there's kind of this sense, like,
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: this is exactly what Republicans need, like one more competitive state,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: one more pickup opportunity, because, you know, I was going
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: to point out, Ken Paxton has not led a poll
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: in a while. There's a new poll out this month,
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: down to the reanimated Howdy Doody doll, James Tallarico, by
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: six points. Now, again, I've heard people saying, Jim... Don't
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: stress about this. It's Texas. These voters are always going
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: to come home. The Republicans are always going to win
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: in Texas. But I just, you know, Ted Cruz never
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: trailed to Beto O'Rourke. This is different. Ken Paxton seemed
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: like a really uniquely weak candidate. We'll see how it
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: shakes out. So there are a bunch of states where
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: we really thought North Carolina was going to be competitive.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: And so far, that doesn't really look like it's going
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: to be the case. You mentioned Georgia. Ohio and Iowa.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: They're a bunch of states that really thought, well, we're
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: pretty reliably red that are looking kind of nervous. Not
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: saying Republicans are guaranteed to lose those states. So a
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: state that Democrats had and that they felt like they
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: had in the bag, like New Hampshire, boy, that's exactly
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: what we need. And obviously, you know, you, you, brand
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: names or candidate names don't get any more reliable in
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: the state of New Hampshire than they do with Sununu.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: So we'll see what happens. It's something worth keeping an
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: eye on. But again, like at a time when the
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: polling has not looked great for Senate candidates and it's
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: just been, it looks like a rough year and the
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: economy is not where we want to be and trade
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: war with Canada is not going to help a bunch
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: of things. A Republican looking competitive in a state that
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: was purple to blue, very welcome at this time of year.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And, you know, winning a And flipping, especially a
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: Senate seat in a year with a Republican president in
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: a midterm is kind of challenging. The last Republican to
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: do that in New Hampshire, John Sununu in 2002. Now,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: that midterm was kind of favorable towards Republicans because it's
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: right after 9-11, but he was able to win that
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Senate seat. Meanwhile, as I said, there's still a primary
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: to go. Sununu is overwhelmingly leading Scott Brown, the former
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Massachusetts senator. It's about 60 to 20 there, according to
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the latest poll. And Pappas is still fending off an
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: even further left, if that's possible, Democrat named Karishma Manzoor
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: had been up by 50 points at one point. It's
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: now down to 13. And he's still under 50%. He'll
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: probably still end up winning the primary, but that's going
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: to be a tougher fight here in the last couple
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: of weeks than he probably wanted.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Greg, this might be a good competitive race in the fall.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: which means I could justify a trip to New Hampshire
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: as a business expense right around peak fall foliage season.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: So that'd be a pretty good thing to have going
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: on there. So the only downside is New England Patriot fans.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Just have to go during the week. All right. In
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: a second, speaking of the Patriots, you're not going to
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: see them suited up at the Pro Bowl anymore. All right, Jim,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: announcement from the NFL yesterday. They are scrapping the Pro
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Bowl game. And for most NFL fans, it's a sigh
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: of relief because it's just become a ridiculous spectacle. Back
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: when we were little kids, you know, if you made
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the Pro Bowl, you got to go out to Hawaii.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: The players took it seriously. They hit each other super
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: hard and it was held after the Super Bowl. So
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: the players in the Super Bowl could actually play in
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: the Pro Bowl. A number of years ago, they moved
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: it back to the U.S. I don't know if it
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: was still in Orlando or not, but it was usually
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: around Orlando, and the effort got less and less and less.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: I'm sure the guys were trying to avoid injury, but
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: if you basically wrap the person up, they'd blow it dead,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and eventually they turned it into a flag football game,
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: and the rest of the Pro Bowl was competitions like
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: dodgeball and throwing and things like that. So they're still
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: going to honor people who are Pro Bowl players, but
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: they are no longer going to actually have the game.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: And given how ridiculous it had gotten, it was the
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: right decision.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, I thought I was going
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: to feel sad about this, and I really don't. And
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: you're right. As we were a kid, your team's out
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: of the, shockingly, other than 1985, most of our teams
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: were not necessarily in the playoffs for very long. you
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: still had one more game where I'd get to see
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: some green helmets on a generally red and white uniform.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: And I don't know whether they ever took it like
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: seriously super competitive. And there was always this pro football
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: because of the potential likelihood of injuries. Every other sport
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: has their all-star game halfway through the season. And so
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: on the one hand, you have this problem in that
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: you're honoring people for the good first half of the
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: season with no guarantee that they're going to have a
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: good second half of the season. So it's kind of this,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: you know, Can you start well is kind of a
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: good way to determine who the best players are, who
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: gets to go to this. But it just kind of
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: seemed like the slam dunk competition, it just felt like
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: every other sport, the home run derby, every other sport
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: had more fun with their all-star game than the NFL did.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: So the NFL, every change that they made, it was logical. Like, oh,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: you know, people don't care because it's after the Super Bowl.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: We'll do it the week before the Super Bowl. Well,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: this means players on the teams that made the Super Bowl,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: for obvious reasons, were not going to compete. Even if
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: the risk of injury was less, they were still not
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: going to partake of it. You do it afterwards. So
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: it really felt like this afterthought and just, you know,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: I'm sure the ratings were okay, but nothing special. And yeah,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: the tug of war and other things that they were doing.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: By the way, Quentin Williams, formerly of the Jets, now
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: with the Cowboys. Always was on the losing side of
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: the tug of war. And I don't get it because
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: he's like a big, strong guy. But it's revealing that
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: I've watched the tug of war competitions just to get
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: one last glimpse of a Jets player before the end
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: of the season. And so on the one hand, I'm bummed.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: The two-hand touch, you'd think it would be fun. But
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: in fact, it just kind of turned into a... There
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: was no real competition to it. Also, didn't they do
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: something where they'd have all-stars drafting guys? So it was
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: like Team Deion Sanders.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of different leagues have done that. They
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: just kept coming up with more gimmicks.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: And it just couldn't be the celebration of the sport
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: that every other major team sport in America managed to do.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: So the question might be, could you do something halfway
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: through the NFL season? And would it not involve actually
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: playing or doing something that would involve a risk to injury?
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: And I think they've come to the conclusion that you
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: can't play football without a potential risk of injury. And
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: nobody wants their guys, you know, twisting an ankle in
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: the All-Star in a Pro Bowl competition and then not
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: being available for weeks during the regular season when they
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: really need them. So kind of bummed, but there's a
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: logic to this. And, you know, I got it. We
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: have all the players, you know, like wait till the
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: end of the year. You can do it either the
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: week before the Super Bowl, and you have everybody together
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: to play themselves in Madden.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, geez.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Right? So it's not them. I mean, they're not going
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: to spray the thumb, right, going out there or something.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: But I don't know. You'd have to have the Madden people,
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: the video game, do it. But you're playing yourself as
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: opposed to just playing the quarterback and playing the whole
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: team or something like that.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: Are we going to televise this?
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: Why not?
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Or the next version is virtual reality. some sort of
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: thing where you go into the helmets and everybody's going
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: around and all that stuff, but there's no actual risk
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: of injury of guys being tackled or something like that.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: This is a mercy killing right here. I missed the
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: old game, but it was nothing like it was. So
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: this was the right call, unfortunately. Jim, still just a
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks left now, two and a half weeks,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: I think, or no, two weeks from about right now
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: is the opening games of the new season. So At
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: least we have that to look forward to. They still
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: play a real game then.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: You're not glued to your seat for the third preseason game, which,
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: you know, to see the very best players who will
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: be in the Canadian Football League next year.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Karambas of Radio America.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for being with us today. Please be
• 27:51
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• 27:53
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• 27:56
  Speaker 1: your five-star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
• 27:59
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• 28:00
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• 28:03
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• 28:06
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• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Friday for the next 3 Martini Lunch.