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Episode One Hundred Seventy Seven: Welcome To Kamalot · The Death Of Journalism

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Speaker 1: Welcomed episode number one hundred and seventy seven of the
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Speaker 1: Death of Journalism podcast. My name is John Zigler. I'm
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Speaker 1: your host on today's show. The news media continues to
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Speaker 1: radically alter the presidential race. The convention speech Donald Trump
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Speaker 1: should have given to head this all off, Kamala Harris
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Speaker 1: gets a new accent in Georgia and an interview with
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Speaker 1: former ESPN and NBCTV sportscaster turned conservative political consultant Michelle Tafoya.
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Speaker 1: I want to begin this episode of the podcast with
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Speaker 1: a few notes on the logistics of the podcast itself
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Speaker 1: and maybe some insight into the frustrations of my life.
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Speaker 1: At the end of the last episode, I had indicated
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Speaker 1: that we were scheduled to do an interview with former
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Speaker 1: television sportscaster Michelle Tafoya that I was really looking forward
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Speaker 1: to on a number of different levels, and I indicated
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Speaker 1: that I would probably not run that interview in this episode.
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Speaker 1: But I've changed my mind. I've decided to call an
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Speaker 1: audible for a couple of different reasons. One, I didn't
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Speaker 1: want the interview to get stale at all, because there
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Speaker 1: were some things related to the presidential race that may
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Speaker 1: or may not remain consistent over the.
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Speaker 2: Next week or so.
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Speaker 1: But also because as you can probably tell from my voice,
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Speaker 1: I'm still feeling under the weather, not up to one
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Speaker 1: hundred percent, and so I figured, Okay, this is probably better.
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Speaker 1: I'll just run the Michel ta Foy interview in this episode,
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Speaker 1: and I'll try to regroup for the next episode. Although
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Speaker 1: I have another logistical scheduling issue coming up for the
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Speaker 1: next episode related to my attempts to play tournament golf,
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Speaker 1: which I also wanted to share with you because that
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Speaker 1: was why episode one seventy six was taped a little
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Speaker 1: bit early. I was playing Monday in probably the biggest
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Speaker 1: round of golf I play on a yearly basis, which
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Speaker 1: is the US qualify for the Senior Amateur now that
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Speaker 1: I'm an old guy at fifty seven years old and
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Speaker 1: still try to play competitively on the national level. Either's
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Speaker 1: a one eighteen hole round qualifier for the national Championship.
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Speaker 1: This was being played at the Valley Club, very prestigious
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Speaker 1: Valley Club in Monticito, California, the neighborhood of Oprah Winfrey
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Speaker 1: and Prince Harry and Megan Markle and all that, and
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Speaker 1: I was trying to schedule the podcast so that I
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Speaker 1: could properly be prepared to play in this thing on
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Speaker 1: Monday morning. That's why I taped it on Sunday. I
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Speaker 1: got sick, which was terrible timing, but I could plow
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Speaker 1: through that. But then, just to give you a sense
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Speaker 1: of the frustrations of my life, So I'm getting ready
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Speaker 1: to play, and I'm feeling decent.
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Speaker 2: I feel like i can get through the day at.
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Speaker 1: Least, and I'm hitting the ball okay, and News Nation
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Speaker 1: contacts me like twenty minutes before my tea time, asking
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Speaker 1: if I'm available to come on Dan Abrams show, as
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Speaker 1: I do about every other week that night, And ordinarily
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Speaker 1: in a situation like this, I would just turn off
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Speaker 1: my phone and I would just basically ignore it. But
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Speaker 1: for reasons that I can't fully get into right now,
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Speaker 1: hopefully I can sometime in not too distant future, I
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Speaker 1: feel like I have to make myself available for any
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Speaker 1: kind of situation like this, especially since Dan has been
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Speaker 1: so good to me, and you never know what's going
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Speaker 1: to happen, And so I literally end up spending the
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Speaker 1: first four or five holes of this qualifier the biggest
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Speaker 1: round I'll probably play all year, depending on what else
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Speaker 1: happens the rest of the season, at least the most
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Speaker 1: important to me on the phone, sometimes literally walking down
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Speaker 1: the fairway talking to the News Nation producer and then deciding, okay,
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Speaker 1: let's try to do this over text where they're telling
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Speaker 1: me they want me to come on to talk about
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Speaker 1: one subject related to JD Vance and then they changed
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Speaker 1: the subject to the Olympic opening ceremony controversy and all
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Speaker 1: of this literally while I'm playing in this USGA qualifier,
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Speaker 1: which was distracting is well.
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Speaker 2: As I said, I'm already sick, and.
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Speaker 1: It's just so frustrating because I feel like I'm stuck.
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Speaker 1: I don't have any ability to get out of this.
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Speaker 1: I'm incredibly distracted, not just by the content of what
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Speaker 1: News Nation wants me to do or talk about, but
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Speaker 1: also the logistics of that. You know, they don't have
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Speaker 1: a truck available that particular day, so now I have
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Speaker 1: to do it from my home and my own studio.
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Speaker 2: I'm thinking my iPad isn't charged.
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Speaker 1: Am I gonna have enough time to get home and
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Speaker 1: set up the studio?
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Speaker 2: I mean, this is it's just a cluster bark.
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Speaker 1: Somehow I made it through the first twelve holes still
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Speaker 1: even par, which put me right in the ballgame. I
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Speaker 1: figured it would take one under to qualify. Unfortunately, from
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Speaker 1: that point I made a few bogies coming in and
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Speaker 1: shot three over for the round. It ended up taking
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Speaker 1: two under just to even have a chance to qualify,
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Speaker 1: which was lower than I expected. A very very prestigious
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Speaker 1: and tough field in southern California of old guys, a
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Speaker 1: very accomplished amateur golfers. But anyway, just typical of my
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Speaker 1: life where I focus for months. For months, I focus
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Speaker 1: on this and then the whole thing goes to hell,
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Speaker 1: partially because I'm sick, partially because I'm dealing with this
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Speaker 1: News Nation situation. I'll talk a little bit bit about
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Speaker 1: how the News Nation appearance went later on in this episode,
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Speaker 1: but that was also.
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Speaker 2: Typical of the way my life tends to work.
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Speaker 1: But a very frustrating situation, and it in some ways
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Speaker 1: played into how I decided to alter this episode of
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Speaker 1: the podcast, partially because, as I've said, I'm not feeling
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Speaker 1: particularly well, but there's a lot to talk about and
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Speaker 1: you are going to want to hear the Michelle Tafoya
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Speaker 1: interview because it's it's very, very good, and.
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Speaker 2: So getting that out there sooner than later is.
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Speaker 1: Probably a good idea. As far as the presidential race
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Speaker 1: is concerned. There is more polling going in exactly the
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Speaker 1: same direction as I warned you would be the case
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Speaker 1: over the last couple of episodes of the podcast. Basically,
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Speaker 1: I think we are in a tide race at this point.
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Speaker 1: You could even argue that Harris could be ahead. There
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Speaker 1: are some analysts saying that Trump is still ahead, like
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Speaker 1: Nate Silver, I think delusionally the liberal hack who I
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Speaker 1: believe for a long time was a bit of a
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Speaker 1: fraud and he's no longer a liberal darling. He's still
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Speaker 1: saying Trump has over a sixty percent chance of winning.
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Speaker 1: I think currently, based upon the current data, that's delusional.
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Speaker 1: I think it's probably fifty to fifty at best at
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Speaker 1: this point. There are some other analysts that are now
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Speaker 1: saying that Harris has taken the lead. A lot of
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Speaker 1: the depends on whether or not you buy into this
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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Morning Console poll, which has numbers all over the place,
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Speaker 1: including Harris winning Michigan by eleven points while losing Pennsylvania
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Speaker 1: by four.
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Speaker 2: Now, inherently that seems impossible.
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Speaker 1: However, I don't think that that completely and totally discredits
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Speaker 1: the entire poll. A lot of people, especially on the
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Speaker 1: Trump side, so, oh, you can't believe anything this pole says.
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Speaker 2: Well, wait a minute.
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Speaker 1: If the methodology that they're using is inherently biased against Trump,
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Speaker 1: then why is it showing him winning Pennsylvania by four
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Speaker 1: I agree that those two results don't make any sense,
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Speaker 1: but I don't think you can just completely discount it,
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Speaker 1: especially when it has the polling in other states basically
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Speaker 1: tied states where Trump has been winning, sometimes by significant margins.
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Speaker 1: And if you go buy that poll and you look
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Speaker 1: at it in the context of where all these other
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Speaker 1: poles are trending, it is certainly not good news for Trump.
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Speaker 1: And it's more good news for Kamala Harris. And it's
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Speaker 1: not just the fact that she's now tied or winning
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Speaker 1: in key swing states and winning numerous national polls. Now
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Speaker 1: they're you know, the the Real Clear Politics average still
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Speaker 1: has Trump winning the national polls by an average of
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Speaker 1: two points. But I think that is very deceiving because
8:27
Speaker 1: they're counting ras Muscin, which is delusionally pro Trump right now,
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Speaker 1: and they're discounting a couple of other poles that I
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Speaker 1: think are credible enough to be counted in this average.
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Speaker 1: So in real clear politics has become very pro Trump.
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Speaker 1: As it is so it seems to me is if
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Speaker 1: they're systematically eliminating certain polls that are problematic to Trump
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Speaker 1: and keeping in Rasmussen, which I don't think deserves to
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Speaker 1: be part of that group anymore, because I think Rasmussen
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Speaker 1: has become total joke. And so I do not believe
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Speaker 1: that if you average all of the currently credible polls
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Speaker 1: that Trump is still winning the national polling data. I
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Speaker 1: think it's at best for him tied, but it's worse
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Speaker 1: than being tied to the national level, which Trump can
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Speaker 1: get away with and still win the electoral College.
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Speaker 2: I understand that.
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Speaker 1: And it's worse than being down eleven points in one
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Speaker 1: pole that might be an outlier in Michigan. It's what
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Speaker 1: has happened to Kamala Harris's personal approval ratings that to
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Speaker 1: me is the key part of this and where the
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Speaker 1: real danger is for the Trump team. And some of
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Speaker 1: these numbers are really startling and really give you an
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Speaker 1: indication of just how impactful the media coverage has been. Now,
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Speaker 1: there are other reasons why this might happen. Once the
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Speaker 1: switch was flipped and this massive boondoggle was pulled off
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Speaker 1: where all of a sudden, Kamala Harris has handed the
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Speaker 1: Democratic nomination after Joe Biden suddenly drops out after over
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Speaker 1: three weeks of being forced out by the news media
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Speaker 1: and by Democratic leaders. But I think the news media
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Speaker 1: certainly is is the wind, the weather, the glue, whatever
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Speaker 1: analogy metaphor you want to use to how and why
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Speaker 1: this is happening. But here are some of the Kamala
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Speaker 1: Harris approval numbers and how they differ from what they
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Speaker 1: were before.
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Speaker 2: The Biden would draw.
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Speaker 1: Now you know, in reality, nothing has happened and nothing
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Speaker 1: has changed. She hasn't done anything in either really direction
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Speaker 1: to either increase or decrease her personal approval ratings. It's
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Speaker 1: all the aesthetics, it's all the media coverage, it's all
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Speaker 1: the perception of her now being the presumed Democratic nominee.
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Speaker 1: But here are the numbers Morning consult In just eight
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Speaker 1: days time, she went from a negative eight approval rating
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Speaker 1: to a plus four approval rating.
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Speaker 2: That's twelve points difference in eight.
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Speaker 1: Days, having done nothing, not even having given a national address.
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Speaker 2: That's amazing. ABC.
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Speaker 1: In seven days she went from negative eleven to plus one,
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Speaker 1: the same twelve.
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Speaker 2: Point difference the New York Times.
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Speaker 1: Now this is a little bit more difficult to compare
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Speaker 1: because they don't have an approval rating for her right
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Speaker 1: before the withdraw but it was earlier this year. Earlier
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Speaker 1: this year, she was minus sixteen. Now she's minus four.
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Speaker 1: Guess what that is.
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Speaker 2: That's a twelve point difference.
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Speaker 1: So you have three major polls showing a twelve point
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Speaker 1: difference towards the positive if.
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Speaker 2: You're rooting for Kamala Harris.
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Speaker 1: When it comes to her personal approval ratings Forbes Harris X,
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Speaker 1: she went in on line nineteen from being minus eight
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Speaker 1: and now just a week later, July twenty fifth, with
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Speaker 1: nothing having happened, she's minus five. That's rather modest, although
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Speaker 1: not insignificant, three point difference. CNN on June thirtieth, she
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Speaker 1: was at minus twenty one. On July twenty third, just
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Speaker 1: the day after Biden dropped out of the race, she
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Speaker 1: was at minus thirteen. So that's an eight point difference.
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Speaker 1: So we have numerous polls showing that Kamala Harris's personal approval,
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Speaker 1: her popularity is much better than it was before Joe
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Speaker 1: Biden dropped out, and again There are a lot of
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Speaker 1: reasons why that is, but you cannot discount the ridiculously
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Speaker 1: over the top pro Harris media coverage that has ensued
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Speaker 1: because now they are deeply, deeply invested in her winning
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Speaker 1: this election. They facilitated Biden drop out. They feel a
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Speaker 1: little bit of guilt about it. They'd never engaged in
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Speaker 1: that kind of behavior against a Democratic presidential nominee before.
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Speaker 1: And you know, they're not going to have this happen
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Speaker 1: and then get a loss out of it unless they
13:15
Speaker 1: can do everything they possibly can to avoid that. And
13:18
Speaker 1: they're acting I said this before. I think it's a
13:21
Speaker 1: good way to describe it. They're acting as if they
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Speaker 1: are the Democratic Party's campaign manager. That's what the mainstream
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Speaker 1: news media did here. They decided after that first debate, yet, sorry, Joe,
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Speaker 1: you can't make this work.
13:35
Speaker 2: You're done.
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Speaker 1: They came out to the pitcher's man and they said,
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Speaker 1: give us the ball, and the picture balked not literally figuratively,
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Speaker 1: and decided.
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Speaker 2: No, I'm not leaving. Get back into the dugout.
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Speaker 1: And they went back into the dugout and they conspired
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Speaker 1: with some other allies, and you know, three weeks later
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Speaker 1: they finally forced the Pitcher to get to leave the mound,
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Speaker 1: and then they pretended that he left the mound voluntarily
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Speaker 1: and he was a hero for doing so, when all
14:06
Speaker 1: of that was complete ridiculousness and absurdity. So the media
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Speaker 1: facilitated this, and now they're going to give Kamala Harris
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Speaker 1: the Obama treatment. And boy have they given her the
14:19
Speaker 1: Obama treatment. And you know, look, I am going to
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Speaker 1: probably consistently talk about the increasing parallels between this election
14:28
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight for a while, a look like.
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Speaker 2: This might be might be nineteen sixty eight all over there. Again.
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Speaker 1: I mentioned that several times I was kind of hoping
14:37
Speaker 1: for that, where you know, you have Trump as a
14:41
Speaker 1: Nixonian figure making a comeback. You have a vice president
14:44
Speaker 1: running for office when an incumbent, Lyndon Johnson decided not
14:50
Speaker 1: to run and he was unpopular and had all sorts
14:54
Speaker 1: of issues, and the vice president was hamstrung, and you
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Speaker 1: had a third party candidate, and you had a very
15:00
Speaker 1: close race from a popular vote perspective, but from the
15:03
Speaker 1: elector college standpoint, it wasn't that close, and Nixon ended
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Speaker 1: up winning, and the Democratic Convention was in Chicago just
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Speaker 1: like it is this time.
15:11
Speaker 2: Around.
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Speaker 1: Well, those parallels are fading fast, and it's looking a
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Speaker 1: lot more like two thousand and eight than nineteen sixty eight.
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Speaker 1: And in one of the many ways that this is
15:23
Speaker 1: paralleling two thousand and eight an election I know very
15:27
Speaker 1: very well because I made a documentary film called Media
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Speaker 1: Malepractice a Obama got elected and Palein was targeted, is
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Speaker 1: in the media coverage of Kamala Harris. And there was
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Speaker 1: at least one very dramatic example that was so over
15:41
Speaker 1: the top that I think it's now representative of this
15:44
Speaker 1: entire phenomenon. In fact, is so over the top that
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Speaker 1: I wonder whether or not New York Magazine, which was
15:52
Speaker 1: the culprit here, was actually trolling conservatives.
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Speaker 2: I don't know this.
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Speaker 1: It's very difficult to tell with liberals because often they
16:02
Speaker 1: have no sense of self awareness at all, and they
16:06
Speaker 1: really don't have a sense of humor. And it's probably
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Speaker 1: too early to be making a satirical comment on the
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Speaker 1: over the top pro Harris media coverage or to troll
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Speaker 1: conservatives over how ridiculous the Harris coverage has been.
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Speaker 2: So I don't think that's what they were doing.
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Speaker 1: But if you haven't seen this, it's almost impossible to
16:31
Speaker 1: do justice to in an audio podcast.
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Speaker 2: It's widely available online.
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Speaker 1: If you check out the cover of New York Magazine,
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Speaker 1: they have Kamala Harris on the top of a giant
16:44
Speaker 1: coconut because she, you know, has made a comment that
16:49
Speaker 1: has gone viral a long time ago about, you know,
16:52
Speaker 1: have you fallen off a coconut tree? By the way,
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Speaker 1: one of the first signs I saw of trouble here
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Speaker 1: with guard to the Harris candidacy was I was on
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Speaker 1: TikTok and as I often do, I'm scrolling through and
17:08
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm seeing these videos of use of
17:12
Speaker 1: people using that clip and her cackle, and they're putting
17:17
Speaker 1: it to a Taylor Swift song, and I'm thinking, is
17:20
Speaker 1: this a negative Kamala Harris trend? Like, are young people
17:26
Speaker 1: like mocking her? And I'm much to my horror, I'm
17:30
Speaker 1: realizing no, they're actually celebrating this.
17:34
Speaker 2: This is they think this is great.
17:37
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, okay, this is gonna be
17:41
Speaker 1: a very big problem that they think that what conservatives
17:47
Speaker 1: might hear and go what the hell was that? That's
17:49
Speaker 1: annoying as hell, they actually think that that's somehow funny
17:53
Speaker 1: charming and endearing. And and so here New York Magazine
17:59
Speaker 1: puts Kamala Harris on this massive coconut and they have
18:04
Speaker 1: the headline welcome to Camelot, kam a lot Camelot as
18:12
Speaker 1: opposed to Camelot the play, and obviously also the.
18:16
Speaker 2: Allusion to John F.
18:19
Speaker 1: Kennedy's presidency, which his widow Jackie Kennedy referred after his
18:25
Speaker 1: assassination to Camelot. And so now, for liberals, especially at
18:30
Speaker 1: a certain age, this has a lot of meaning to them.
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Speaker 1: And so now they're changing the c to a K
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Speaker 1: and welcome to Camelot. And so she's sitting on top
18:40
Speaker 1: of the coconut, and then below her are all sorts
18:43
Speaker 1: of celebrities and liberal politicians looking up at her, ecstatic,
18:48
Speaker 1: giving thumbs up, cheering the emergence of Camelot. One of
18:54
Speaker 1: those politicians, by the way, is Joe Biden, hilariously and
19:00
Speaker 1: ironically standing looking up at Kamala on top of the
19:05
Speaker 1: coconut tree, smiling with the thumbs up. This is a
19:08
Speaker 1: guy that we're just going to pretend didn't hold on
19:12
Speaker 1: for dear life for three weeks plus, said he was
19:17
Speaker 1: better suited to beat Donald Trump than she was and
19:21
Speaker 1: has not resigned the presidency, apparently because he doesn't think
19:25
Speaker 1: that she can do the job. Because given his age
19:29
Speaker 1: and health and the way things are going for him,
19:32
Speaker 1: there's no other logical explanation for why he wouldn't give
19:36
Speaker 1: up power and why no one in the Democratic Party
19:39
Speaker 1: is forcing him or even pressuring him to give up power.
19:43
Speaker 2: But this is just so over the top to be ridiculous.
19:46
Speaker 1: It has been rightfully roundly mocked by many many conservatives,
19:51
Speaker 1: including Ron DeSantis, who put out a great tweet about it,
19:55
Speaker 1: and frankly, DeSantis's messaging has been better so far in
19:59
Speaker 1: this portion of the campaign than Trump's has been by
20:03
Speaker 1: a long shot, But unfortunately that's not a surprise. From
20:06
Speaker 1: a substantive standpoint, I mean that the New York magazine.
20:10
Speaker 2: Cover is absurd, hilarious.
20:13
Speaker 1: Telling, annoying. I'm not sure how much impact it really has.
20:17
Speaker 1: But from a substantive standpoint, the worst headline that I've
20:22
Speaker 1: seen in the last few days comes from Politico, because
20:26
Speaker 1: this goes way deeper and goes to this issue of
20:29
Speaker 1: a systematic cover up by the news media of the
20:33
Speaker 1: reality that is Kamala Harris. They have a headline out
20:37
Speaker 1: this week, Harris campaign pledges she won't ban fracking after
20:43
Speaker 1: Trump accusation. Harris campaign pledges she won't ban fracking after
20:52
Speaker 1: Trump accusation, which is just mind blowing. And I mean,
20:59
Speaker 1: this is this is gaslighting in the extreme because it's
21:04
Speaker 1: not a Trump accusation that she is.
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Speaker 2: Going to ban fracking. She said she was gonna ban fracking.
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Speaker 1: Now, she has said a lot of things when she
21:17
Speaker 1: ran for president in twenty twenty. I told you about
21:21
Speaker 1: this already. I mean, there's a treasure trove of insane
21:25
Speaker 1: things that she said during the twenty twenty presidential campaign
21:28
Speaker 1: because she was trying to be the left wing socialist candidate.
21:34
Speaker 1: She was trying to catch fire. So she was going
21:37
Speaker 1: to latch on to any wacky idea that the far
21:41
Speaker 1: left thought was was something that was enticing because.
21:46
Speaker 2: That was her path. Her path was.
21:49
Speaker 1: To be the far left socialist candidate. And you know,
21:53
Speaker 1: somehow get enough of a basis support in Iowa where
21:59
Speaker 1: you know, in a Iowa caucus on the Democratic side,
22:02
Speaker 1: you're talking about looney tunes people looney tunes, and so
22:06
Speaker 1: she's trying to appeal to that portion of the Democratic Party.
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Speaker 2: Well, it didn't work.
22:12
Speaker 1: She dropped out before she ever gotten any votes, but
22:16
Speaker 1: in doing so, she took all sorts of crazy positions.
22:21
Speaker 1: And this is the only time she's ever run for president,
22:25
Speaker 1: so what she said at that time should matter a
22:29
Speaker 1: great deal. But she was very clear she wanted to
22:33
Speaker 1: ban fracking. By the way, she also she wanted to
22:34
Speaker 1: ban paper straw or plastic straws, So she wanted she
22:40
Speaker 1: wanted an improvement on paper straws, but she wanted to
22:42
Speaker 1: ban plastic straws. But that's not the only thing that
22:46
Speaker 1: she's she's now reversing herself on and the media is
22:50
Speaker 1: letting her off the hook, claiming it's.
22:52
Speaker 2: A Trump accusation. It's not a Trump accusation. It's what
22:57
Speaker 2: she said. But she's going through all sorts of flip flops.
23:01
Speaker 1: I mean, she's doing her simonwe Biles impression with the
23:05
Speaker 1: flip flops that she's doing in the first few days
23:08
Speaker 1: of this campaign. The New York Times is reporting that
23:10
Speaker 1: she now opposes a mandatory assault weapons by back.
23:15
Speaker 2: Well, that's a flip flop.
23:17
Speaker 1: The New York Times also reported that she no longer
23:19
Speaker 1: supports Medicare for all.
23:21
Speaker 2: Well, that's a flip flop.
23:23
Speaker 1: There are also now indications that she no longer supports
23:28
Speaker 1: taxpayer funded gender reassignment surgeries for federal inmates, which she
23:33
Speaker 1: was clearly an enthusiastically in favor of. So they're just
23:38
Speaker 1: gonna let her flip flop all of these crazy positions
23:42
Speaker 1: she took in twenty twenty. By the way, I haven't
23:45
Speaker 1: yet heard whether or not she's gonna flip flop on
23:47
Speaker 1: reparations for black people, but she was in favor of that.
23:51
Speaker 1: She said, definitely, we need reparations for black people. We
23:53
Speaker 1: just need to talk about what that looks like. That's
23:56
Speaker 1: on video. All this is on video. But the media
24:00
Speaker 1: is just going to pretend. We're just gonna pretend that
24:04
Speaker 1: none of this actually happened. And that must be a
24:08
Speaker 1: hell of a thing to have in your favor. Imagine
24:11
Speaker 1: anything in your past that you don't want to have
24:14
Speaker 1: to talk about and you can just pretend it didn't exist,
24:17
Speaker 1: and the media is going to go along with that.
24:19
Speaker 1: So you can pander to the far left of the
24:23
Speaker 1: Democratic Party all you want, and that now that you
24:27
Speaker 1: have to appeal to, you know, legitimate mainstream voters, people
24:33
Speaker 1: who aren't crazy in swing states, that aren't super liberal.
24:39
Speaker 2: You get to pretend that never happened.
24:41
Speaker 1: You get to change your positions to fit what the
24:46
Speaker 1: Democratic Party needs you to be now, because you're appealing
24:50
Speaker 1: to a completely different type of voter. That must be
24:53
Speaker 1: a hell and advantage. And that really is where the
24:57
Speaker 1: media coverage has significant in power in this day and age.
25:02
Speaker 1: The media has lost so much power in the last
25:05
Speaker 1: couple of decades, so many fewer people actually pay attention
25:09
Speaker 1: and listen to and believe what they hear, but they
25:13
Speaker 1: still dictate what the rules of the game are. They
25:16
Speaker 1: still play referee to a large extent. And it's just
25:21
Speaker 1: like a football game. When you know that the refs
25:25
Speaker 1: are not going to call holding on your team, then
25:28
Speaker 1: you can do whatever the hell you want. It's an
25:31
Speaker 1: incredible freedom for your offensive line to know they ain't
25:36
Speaker 1: calling holding on us. We get to do whatever the
25:38
Speaker 1: hell we want. And the other side, of course, knows
25:42
Speaker 1: that anything they do is going to be called a penalty.
25:45
Speaker 1: I mean, you look, there's a far right of the
25:48
Speaker 1: Republican Party in the magabase that Trump playcates all the time.
25:53
Speaker 1: Now he doesn't have to placate them because they're a
25:57
Speaker 1: cult and they're on his side. Now, especially after the
25:59
Speaker 1: assassination attempt. No matter what, but the media calls him
26:03
Speaker 1: out all the time in placating the far right and
26:07
Speaker 1: for things that he has said in the past. And
26:09
Speaker 1: all I've ever asked for is fair treatment, some semblance
26:14
Speaker 1: of fairness and sensibility. And we don't have any of
26:18
Speaker 1: that in the news media now. And you know, in
26:20
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, it was bad. It was really bad.
26:23
Speaker 1: Is why I made a documentary film about it. To me,
26:26
Speaker 1: it's actually worse now because in two thousand and eight
26:29
Speaker 1: this was new to them. They felt a tinge of
26:32
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit of guilt or maybe are we
26:34
Speaker 1: going too far here, or they at least liked to
26:37
Speaker 1: still pretend that they were being somewhat fair in two
26:39
Speaker 1: thousand and eight, even though they weren't. Now all bets
26:43
Speaker 1: are off, all the rules are gone, you know, you know,
26:48
Speaker 1: they know that this is a completely new world. By
26:50
Speaker 1: the way, it's sixteen years later. A lot of these
26:53
Speaker 1: people doing the jobs are a lot younger now. They
26:55
Speaker 1: have no institutional memory of the way things used to
26:57
Speaker 1: be in the news media, so there are.
27:00
Speaker 2: No rules anymore.
27:02
Speaker 1: And also now that we all live in our own silos,
27:06
Speaker 1: these liberal outlets don't give a crap about conservative audience
27:10
Speaker 1: members because there is no conservative conservative audience member. They
27:13
Speaker 1: don't have it to worry about offending anybody with unfair
27:16
Speaker 1: media coverage because conservatives aren't using their outlet, they aren't subscribing.
27:23
Speaker 2: I mean, the New York magazine.
27:25
Speaker 1: Doesn't have any conservative subscribers, so they could put that
27:29
Speaker 1: ridiculous cover together with Kamala Harris on the top of
27:32
Speaker 1: a coconut and call it comealot. I mean, you know,
27:36
Speaker 1: the New York Times and Washington Post of the same way.
27:40
Speaker 1: MSNBC and CNN are pretty much the same way. And
27:44
Speaker 1: so because the media dynamic has completely changed, it has
27:48
Speaker 1: freed them up to act as the campaign manager for
27:52
Speaker 1: Combo Harris. And part of that means we're gonna let
27:55
Speaker 1: you do whatever you want.
27:56
Speaker 2: In fact, we're actually.
27:57
Speaker 1: Gonna help you change your positions to what we think
28:01
Speaker 1: will make you a much better candidate in key sink
28:05
Speaker 1: swing states in twenty twenty four than you were in
28:08
Speaker 1: twenty twenty when you tried to appeal to batshit crazy
28:11
Speaker 1: people in the Iowa caucus. And it appears right now
28:16
Speaker 1: as if Harris is going to be able to get
28:17
Speaker 1: away with all this, and I don't know how this
28:20
Speaker 1: is all going to work out. We're an uncharted territory.
28:24
Speaker 1: I warned you that it looked like it was going
28:26
Speaker 1: in this direction. It's maybe turning out even worse than
28:28
Speaker 1: I had feared. I'm not saying that Harris is going
28:31
Speaker 1: to win because there is so much fertile ground when
28:35
Speaker 1: it comes to attacking her. I mean, she is so
28:38
Speaker 1: bad in so many ways. But I do think that
28:43
Speaker 1: at the very least, the Trump campaign has blown it
28:48
Speaker 1: when it comes to allowing her to get out of port,
28:52
Speaker 1: to get flight, to get out of the starting gate,
28:55
Speaker 1: and to get momentum.
28:57
Speaker 2: This did not have to be this way.
29:00
Speaker 1: I really do believe that if the Trump team had
29:03
Speaker 1: been proactive, especially at the GOP convention, they would not
29:09
Speaker 1: be in this position. We would not see Harris with
29:12
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, dramatically increased approval ratings and with
29:18
Speaker 1: numbers tying or even bettering Trump in a lot of
29:22
Speaker 1: these swing states where Trump thought he was a shot winner,
29:26
Speaker 1: like for instance, Georgia is now seemingly up for grabs,
29:31
Speaker 1: and like I said, there's that crazy pole in Michigan.
29:34
Speaker 1: Having Harris up by eleven, which may not be remotely accurate,
29:39
Speaker 1: but that's concerning because Michigan is a key part of
29:43
Speaker 1: this equation. If you're somebody who wants Trump to win,
29:48
Speaker 1: and so, you know, I have not been in a
29:51
Speaker 1: situation here where this is twenty twenty hindsight. I was
29:55
Speaker 1: in the weird spot of not believing that Biden was
29:58
Speaker 1: going to with draw. I thought it was possible, but
30:01
Speaker 1: I did not think it was going to happen. It
30:04
Speaker 1: ended up happening, partially because of the assassination attempt, partially
30:08
Speaker 1: because he got COVID, partially because he just wore down.
30:12
Speaker 1: There was a whole perfect storm of circumstances. But I
30:15
Speaker 1: was in the weird spot of not believing that was
30:17
Speaker 1: going to happen, but also believing that Republicans were missing
30:21
Speaker 1: an opportunity to close off the escape patches, that Republicans
30:25
Speaker 1: and Trump should be prepared for what might happen here,
30:30
Speaker 1: because there had to be a way to stop Democrats
30:35
Speaker 1: from getting out of this trap. They were in a
30:37
Speaker 1: trap before Biden withdrew, and I was saying publicly on
30:43
Speaker 1: this podcast and on Twitter and elsewhere, and privately I
30:46
Speaker 1: was telling people that this is a problem because the
30:50
Speaker 1: Trump people are not taking advantage of this opportunity. And
30:53
Speaker 1: I get there's the inclination of where it looks like
30:56
Speaker 1: your opponent is flailing, you let them flail.
30:58
Speaker 2: But in this.
30:59
Speaker 1: Particular case, I thought there were some unique opportunities to
31:04
Speaker 1: stick a fork in the Biden Harris team no matter
31:08
Speaker 1: what ended up happening during the Biden coup. And I
31:13
Speaker 1: realized that some people might think this is twenty twenty hindsight,
31:15
Speaker 1: I don't.
31:16
Speaker 2: Believe that it is.
31:17
Speaker 1: I'd like to go back to where I think Trump
31:20
Speaker 1: went wrong. And I get, after you've been shot, you know,
31:26
Speaker 1: you're you're distracted, You're getting all this praise for your
31:30
Speaker 1: iconic and heroic reaction to it. You've got your GOP convention,
31:34
Speaker 1: you're picking your vice presidential nominee. There's a ton going on.
31:37
Speaker 2: I get it. But by the time his.
31:40
Speaker 1: Convention speech came around, and you know, things had calmed
31:46
Speaker 1: down a little bit, and you know, and it was
31:49
Speaker 1: clear that the Biden coup was not ending. And in fact,
31:54
Speaker 1: you know, by that point, Biden had gotten COVID and
31:59
Speaker 1: the Democrat were in total panic mode, partially because of
32:03
Speaker 1: the way Trump reacted to the assassination attempt.
32:07
Speaker 2: I really think we're going to look back.
32:09
Speaker 1: On the assassination attempt and think, my god, how amazing
32:14
Speaker 1: is the impact of that one bullet. I mean, if
32:18
Speaker 1: Trump unfortunately would have been hitting a head as he
32:22
Speaker 1: believes he was going to be until he turned his head,
32:25
Speaker 1: then obviously he's an all likelihood dead. He's not the
32:28
Speaker 1: Republican nominee. There's no nominee to replace him in any
32:34
Speaker 1: semblance of a way that could possibly, in my opinion,
32:38
Speaker 1: win the election. Under those circumstances, it would be total chaos.
32:42
Speaker 1: Biden would not have dropped out, there would have been
32:45
Speaker 1: no push for him to drop out. Biden would be
32:47
Speaker 1: almost certainly re elected. I actually also believe if the
32:52
Speaker 1: bullet had completely missed Trump, Let's pretend the bullet completely
32:56
Speaker 1: missed Trump, and we don't have that bloody scene and
32:59
Speaker 1: the fifth pumping in the fight, fight, fight, And let's
33:02
Speaker 1: even pretend, you know, the boy would have been great
33:05
Speaker 1: if this had happened. That there are no bystanders who
33:08
Speaker 1: end up getting killed, right, so Trump doesn't get hit
33:11
Speaker 1: and no one is killed in that assassination attempt. I
33:16
Speaker 1: question whether or not there's the same kind of pressure
33:19
Speaker 1: for Biden to get out. I think it's possible Biden
33:24
Speaker 1: survives at that point, and that's an unknowable and I'm
33:27
Speaker 1: not one hundred percent sure about that, but I think
33:30
Speaker 1: it's possible. So, I mean, the path of that bullet,
33:34
Speaker 1: it's just mind blowing the impact that it has had
33:38
Speaker 1: on this presidential race in ways that I don't think
33:41
Speaker 1: anyone would have predicted on that day or even the
33:44
Speaker 1: days afterwards. But I think that Trump had an incredibly
33:49
Speaker 1: unique opportunity at that convention speech, and he used the
33:53
Speaker 1: first part of that opportunity I thought, very very effectively,
33:57
Speaker 1: very effectively. I mean, it was very compelling the way
34:01
Speaker 1: he described the assassination attempt. There was an enormous number
34:05
Speaker 1: of people who tuned in out of curiosity to see
34:08
Speaker 1: what he would say in the aftermath of the assassination attempt.
34:12
Speaker 1: There was like twenty nine million people at one point
34:15
Speaker 1: watching that speech, and so there were surely people who
34:21
Speaker 1: were tuning in to say, Okay, is this a new man,
34:24
Speaker 1: is this a changed guy? What does he have to
34:27
Speaker 1: say about that? What does he say about the election
34:31
Speaker 1: moving forward? And I think that if Trump, after having
34:38
Speaker 1: made that very compelling description of what happened with the assassination.
34:43
Speaker 1: Had instead of going into an hour long plus diatribe
34:48
Speaker 1: list of grievances and ramblings, which is what he did,
34:53
Speaker 1: had he then pivoted and specifically addressed the ongoing coup
35:01
Speaker 1: within the Democratic Party and put it in those terms,
35:05
Speaker 1: then a lot of what has happened after Biden's withdraw
35:09
Speaker 1: would have been cut off at the pass, and that
35:12
Speaker 1: Harris would not be enjoying this level of a honeymoon
35:17
Speaker 1: and would not have her approval ratings be where they
35:20
Speaker 1: currently are, and we would not be in what is
35:23
Speaker 1: at best, in my opinion, a tied race right now.
35:27
Speaker 1: And I'd like to just kind of share a little
35:30
Speaker 1: bit of what I think he should have said.
35:31
Speaker 3: Now.
35:32
Speaker 1: I don't do impressions generally, and I certainly don't do
35:36
Speaker 1: Trump's voice, especially when I'm sick, but I'm going to
35:39
Speaker 1: try to channel the essence of Trump and what I
35:44
Speaker 1: think he should have sounded like after the assassination attempt
35:49
Speaker 1: portion of his convention speech. I think Trump should have
35:54
Speaker 1: gone out there and said, look, I'm in a tough spot, folks,
35:58
Speaker 1: I don't even know who my opponent's going to be.
36:02
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to tell you why I'm the better candidate.
36:06
Speaker 1: But I don't know if Joe's gonna run. I don't
36:09
Speaker 1: know if Kamala's gonna run. I don't even know if
36:12
Speaker 1: Joe knows if Joe's gonna run at this point, and
36:15
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody does. But I'll tell you tell
36:18
Speaker 1: you what, boy, that Kamala Harris. She is being really
36:24
Speaker 1: disloyal to good old Joe.
36:25
Speaker 2: Don't you think.
36:27
Speaker 1: I mean, I haven't heard her do anything publicly to
36:30
Speaker 1: support Joe. It's almost like we're in the middle of
36:34
Speaker 1: a coup and she's gonna sit there and benefit from
36:39
Speaker 1: her president being thrown by the wayside. I mean, there's
36:44
Speaker 1: a coup going on here, folks, and Kamala Harris is
36:47
Speaker 1: gonna be the beneficiary.
36:50
Speaker 2: That seems awfully disloyal to me.
36:52
Speaker 1: I mean, she is a nasty, a nasty, nasty woman,
36:56
Speaker 1: that Kamala Harris. I wouldn't want a vice president like that.
37:01
Speaker 1: Loyalty is very important to me. Loyalty is everything. I'm
37:05
Speaker 1: a very loyal guy. And Kamala Harris is not being
37:09
Speaker 1: loyal to Joe Biden here at all. I mean, so
37:12
Speaker 1: Joe's got to make this decision. Is he going to
37:14
Speaker 1: stay in or not? He's under all this pressure and
37:17
Speaker 1: here his vice president is just sitting off by the side, smiling, cackling,
37:22
Speaker 1: waiting for him to be tossed aside so she can
37:25
Speaker 1: be handed the nomination.
37:29
Speaker 2: Boy, ain't that something? Folks?
37:31
Speaker 1: That Kamala Harris? What a nasty, nasty woman she is.
37:36
Speaker 1: And by the way, you know what's all this talk
37:39
Speaker 1: about old Joe withdrawing from the race but staying as president?
37:46
Speaker 3: Wait?
37:46
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, hold, how.
37:48
Speaker 1: Can he still be president if he can't run for
37:52
Speaker 1: the office And if he's not gonna resign from the presidency,
37:56
Speaker 1: then what does that say about what he thinks of
37:59
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris?
38:02
Speaker 2: Doesn't it?
38:02
Speaker 1: Doesn't that mean he doesn't think she's up for the job?
38:06
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, if isn't that what the vice
38:08
Speaker 1: presidency is for. If you're gonna withdraw from the race, Joe,
38:14
Speaker 1: then shouldn't you resign from the presidency and give Kamala
38:17
Speaker 1: her shot? Or is it that you don't think she's ready?
38:20
Speaker 1: Or is it you don't think she would do a
38:22
Speaker 1: good job? And why isn't anyone in the Democratic Party
38:26
Speaker 1: clamoring for Joe did not just withdraw from the race,
38:30
Speaker 1: but to resign from office. If they think Kamala is
38:33
Speaker 1: so great, why isn't that happening? And oh, by the way,
38:38
Speaker 1: you know, are we gonna really pretend that Kamala didn't
38:44
Speaker 1: know all along that Joe wasn't prepared to serve another
38:48
Speaker 1: four years physically and mentally.
38:51
Speaker 2: I mean, come on, people, she was complicit in this.
38:54
Speaker 2: She has to know.
38:56
Speaker 1: She was with him all the time, and she went
38:58
Speaker 1: along with this. She went along with this cover up
39:03
Speaker 1: of Joe's declining mental acuity and health. And she's still
39:08
Speaker 1: complicit in all this to this day. And so what's
39:13
Speaker 1: gonna happen here, folks? I don't know what's gonna happen.
39:17
Speaker 1: I don't think Joe knows what's gonna happen. But I
39:20
Speaker 1: can tell you for sure one thing that's gonna happen
39:23
Speaker 1: if if they get rid of Joe, it's got to
39:26
Speaker 1: be Kamala because or Kamala, I can't even remember how
39:30
Speaker 1: to say her first name. I don't know which one's
39:32
Speaker 1: racist and which one's not, but it's got to be
39:34
Speaker 1: Kamala because she's a woman of color.
39:38
Speaker 2: That's the way things are in the Democratic Party.
39:40
Speaker 1: They can't bypass the woman of color, so they're just
39:43
Speaker 1: gonna give the nomination to Kamala.
39:48
Speaker 2: And that's gonna be it.
39:49
Speaker 1: But wait a minute, hold on, I was told this
39:51
Speaker 1: was the Saved Democracy Party. What happened to the Saved
39:54
Speaker 1: Democracy Party? I'm told all the time, I'm a threat democracy.
39:59
Speaker 1: I I didn't do anything the Democracy. I took a
40:02
Speaker 1: bullet for democracy. But here here the Democrats. The media
40:07
Speaker 1: tells me they're the Saved Democracy Party. And so the
40:12
Speaker 1: Saved Democracy Party somehow is going to just hand their
40:17
Speaker 1: nomination to a woman who's never gotten a vote for president.
40:22
Speaker 1: Because that's what's going to happen, folks, because they ain't
40:25
Speaker 1: gonna have an open convention. I can guarantee you that
40:30
Speaker 1: they ain't going to have an open convention because those
40:32
Speaker 1: people are crazy and they're smart enough to know. You know,
40:36
Speaker 1: Nancy knows, and Chuck Schumer knows, Brock knows, they all know.
40:41
Speaker 1: They can't let the crazy out at Chicago. They got
40:44
Speaker 1: to lock things down. So they're just if Joe goes,
40:48
Speaker 1: they're just going to give her the nomination. And you
40:50
Speaker 1: mean to tell me that that's going to be the
40:53
Speaker 1: position of the saved Democracy Party that you're just going
40:57
Speaker 1: to hand the nomination with no votes, no public votes,
41:02
Speaker 1: no primary votes, not even an open convention, just with
41:08
Speaker 1: Nancy and Barack and Chuck and Joe telling people this
41:13
Speaker 1: is who you're gonna vote for, you have no choice
41:15
Speaker 1: in the matter, and that's going to be the same
41:18
Speaker 1: Democracy Party. Well, come on, folks, you're not gonna buy this,
41:24
Speaker 1: are you?
41:26
Speaker 2: Come on? This is a scam.
41:30
Speaker 1: Whether it's Joe or whether it's Kamala, it's a scam
41:34
Speaker 1: either way, Joe because they're pretending he's capable of serving
41:40
Speaker 1: another four years.
41:41
Speaker 2: Which he's not.
41:42
Speaker 1: He's not even capable of serving right now, or if
41:45
Speaker 1: it's Kamala, for all the reasons I just gave you.
41:47
Speaker 1: So I don't have anything else to say because I
41:50
Speaker 1: don't know who I'm running against. But I just set
41:52
Speaker 1: for you the terms of what's really going down here
41:56
Speaker 1: and where this thing is headed.
41:58
Speaker 2: And no matter which lane they pick, it's a fraud.
42:03
Speaker 1: Now that going out of the Donald Trump essence, that
42:09
Speaker 1: to me, would have been incredibly effective, That would have
42:13
Speaker 1: set the predicate, that would have, in my view, cut
42:17
Speaker 1: off a lot of these escape patches because Trump at
42:21
Speaker 1: that moment had more personal credibility than he's ever had,
42:25
Speaker 1: certainly at least since the beginning of COVID, when for
42:28
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes we all kind of united around him in
42:31
Speaker 1: a crisis. But at that moment, Trump would have been believed,
42:35
Speaker 1: and if he had predicted the future, which was easily
42:40
Speaker 1: predicted at that point, there were only two options, which
42:43
Speaker 1: I just outlined for you, and had created a narrative
42:49
Speaker 1: where people would see things through that prism.
42:52
Speaker 2: At least some people.
42:53
Speaker 1: Would, and at least that would be injected into the
42:56
Speaker 1: media coverage of all this. I think it would have
42:58
Speaker 1: been very, very effect By the way, I think the
43:02
Speaker 1: most effective thing would have been having Harris be seen
43:06
Speaker 1: as benefiting from the coup and being disloyal. I think
43:10
Speaker 1: that would have cut her off at the knees immediately.
43:15
Speaker 1: It would have put her in a very very difficult position.
43:20
Speaker 1: And I said at the time, if I was Biden,
43:24
Speaker 1: if you get Harris to strongly publicly support your candidacy
43:28
Speaker 1: and say something like I'm not interested in running, I'm
43:30
Speaker 1: not running if it's not Joe, then the coup would
43:34
Speaker 1: have been over because she was the only other option.
43:37
Speaker 1: Because you can't go past her, not just because she's
43:40
Speaker 1: a woman of color, but because to do so opens
43:44
Speaker 1: up the process to total chaos and insanity and an
43:48
Speaker 1: open convention in Chicago, which would have been a disaster
43:51
Speaker 1: bigger than nineteen sixty eight.
43:52
Speaker 2: And everybody Democrat knows.
43:54
Speaker 1: This, and so that's why it's so frustrating to me,
43:57
Speaker 1: even someone who didn't believe that Biden was likely to
44:01
Speaker 1: withdraw on his own, that this was right there, right
44:05
Speaker 1: there for the taking.
44:07
Speaker 2: These were escape hatches that could have easily been closed off.
44:12
Speaker 1: And by the way, you know, if if Trump had
44:15
Speaker 1: done what I had suggested that it had been, there
44:17
Speaker 1: were two parts to this speech, the assassination part and
44:21
Speaker 1: the Kamala as a nasty, disloyal vice president for not
44:26
Speaker 1: backing Joe and all the other issues that I just outlined.
44:30
Speaker 2: If that had been it, I think that would have
44:33
Speaker 2: completely changed the race.
44:34
Speaker 1: And I realized some of that's going to sound like
44:36
Speaker 1: twenty twenty hindsight, but I was saying it essentially at
44:41
Speaker 1: the time. And it's just very, very frustrating because now
44:45
Speaker 1: they got a problem, the Trump people do. The Trump
44:48
Speaker 1: people have a big problem, and I think Trump is
44:52
Speaker 1: very poorly equipped to handle this problem.
44:55
Speaker 2: That's part of why I.
44:57
Speaker 1: Am very, very concerned about the idea that IAmA Harris
45:00
Speaker 1: could be elected president. I know for a lot of
45:03
Speaker 1: conservatives that's inconceivable because she's just so awful.
45:07
Speaker 2: And she is terrible.
45:08
Speaker 1: But Trump is very poorly designed as a human being
45:14
Speaker 1: and as a politician to bring her down. I realized
45:18
Speaker 1: he did it in twenty sixteen with Hillary, but that
45:21
Speaker 1: was a different set of circumstances, and he barely did that.
45:24
Speaker 1: He did that with a remarkable inside straight and you know,
45:28
Speaker 1: that was eight years ago, and he's not the same guy,
45:31
Speaker 1: and he's a convicted felon now, and she's a woman
45:34
Speaker 1: of color. And the media coverage, the media never really
45:38
Speaker 1: liked Hillary. They're all in for Kamala right now and
45:43
Speaker 1: for all sorts of different reasons. And further proof that
45:47
Speaker 1: I don't have confidence or why I don't have confidence
45:49
Speaker 1: in Trump to handle this now much more difficult situation
45:53
Speaker 1: than it should be had he done something even close
45:56
Speaker 1: to what I just suggested he should have, is these
46:01
Speaker 1: statements that he makes that play right into the liberal
46:05
Speaker 1: narrative about him. And there's no better or worse example,
46:10
Speaker 1: certainly in recent times than a clip I played in
46:13
Speaker 1: the last episode of the podcast where over the last weekend,
46:19
Speaker 1: he went on this rant at an event where he
46:22
Speaker 1: told Christians that they just vote for him this one
46:27
Speaker 1: last time, they won't ever have to do so again.
46:30
Speaker 1: And this was used by a lot of people in
46:33
Speaker 1: the left in the media as ah proof that he's
46:38
Speaker 1: going to end democracy. He's telling his voters they're never
46:41
Speaker 1: going to have to vote again after this one time. Now,
46:45
Speaker 1: I realized immediately that's not really what Trump meant. That
46:51
Speaker 1: if you understand Trump at all, it's clearly, at least
46:54
Speaker 1: I think, not what he meant. He was basically bragging like, hey,
47:00
Speaker 1: make sure you got vote this one time, and now
47:03
Speaker 1: I'm going to fix everything, and then in the future
47:05
Speaker 1: you can either vote or not vote.
47:07
Speaker 2: I don't really care.
47:08
Speaker 1: It was intended, I think as a joke, although implicit
47:12
Speaker 1: in that joke is the idea that elections after he's
47:16
Speaker 1: gone don't matter to him at all, which is very,
47:21
Speaker 1: very troubling, right. I mean, just let's pretend best case scenario.
47:26
Speaker 1: Best case scenario, if you're someone who is concerned about
47:30
Speaker 1: a Kamala Harris presidency, Trump somehow gets it together, pulls
47:34
Speaker 1: this off. He wins, right, and so he's president.
47:38
Speaker 2: For four years. He's still alive and kicking.
47:41
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty eight, he decides, you know, he's going
47:44
Speaker 1: to abide by the Constitution and not in any way,
47:48
Speaker 1: shape or form can test the idea that he should
47:50
Speaker 1: be leaving in twenty twenty eight. But he goes along
47:53
Speaker 1: with this idea of I don't give a shit if
47:55
Speaker 1: you vote or not. I'm done. I'm not in the
47:58
Speaker 1: ballot anymore. Vote, I don't care. How's that going to
48:02
Speaker 1: be helpful. That's not helpful at all. But that's consistent
48:06
Speaker 1: with Trump's insane level of narcissism. He only cares about Trump.
48:12
Speaker 1: But that's actually the most charitable interpretation of what he said.
48:15
Speaker 1: And my biggest problem with it is I don't give
48:17
Speaker 1: a shit what he actually meant. You don't talk about
48:21
Speaker 1: people not having to vote when the number one allegation
48:27
Speaker 1: against you is you're gonna end democracy. Doesn't take a
48:32
Speaker 1: rocket scientist to figure this out. From a political perspective.
48:37
Speaker 1: You don't go there when that's your vulnerability. But Trump did,
48:43
Speaker 1: and you know a lot of Trump fans oh defending, Oh,
48:45
Speaker 1: it was a joke.
48:46
Speaker 2: He didn't really mean it that way. I don't give
48:47
Speaker 2: a fuck.
48:50
Speaker 1: He's now in a dogfight with Kamala Harris that he
48:55
Speaker 1: may not be able to win, and this is not
48:57
Speaker 1: helpful at all.
48:59
Speaker 2: So he did an.
49:00
Speaker 1: Interview Trump did with Laura Ingram on Fox News Channel,
49:03
Speaker 1: and Laura Ingram this is a this to me is
49:06
Speaker 1: this is It's hard to say which clips belong in
49:09
Speaker 1: the Museum of Trump political insanity, but you know, if
49:15
Speaker 1: there ever is such a museum, this clip belongs because
49:19
Speaker 1: this really tells you a lot about the problems with
49:23
Speaker 1: Trump as a politician. And I'm trying to be as
49:26
Speaker 1: charitable as possible here, but this is a fascinating exchange
49:31
Speaker 1: between Laura Ingram and Donald Trump. So Laura Ingram is
49:35
Speaker 1: trying her best to guide Trump through an explanation for
49:41
Speaker 1: what he said that is as benign as possible. And
49:44
Speaker 1: I want you to listen carefully that even though Ingram
49:48
Speaker 1: is guiding her, he doesn't take the guidance. It's I mean,
49:54
Speaker 1: he's like a you know, a second or third grade
49:57
Speaker 1: student and the teacher is trying to give him the
49:59
Speaker 1: right answer and he's not getting it. And you could
50:05
Speaker 1: argue that he goes out of his way to not
50:11
Speaker 1: go along with what Ingram was trying to get him
50:14
Speaker 1: to say, which was, I didn't really mean anything about
50:17
Speaker 1: ending democracy.
50:19
Speaker 2: He avoids saying that.
50:21
Speaker 1: Now, do I think that he did that because his
50:24
Speaker 1: plan is to stay around in twenty twenty eight. No,
50:29
Speaker 1: but I'm not one hundred percent positive of that, because
50:32
Speaker 1: if you listen to this clip from that perspective, it
50:36
Speaker 1: certainly sounds like a guy who doesn't want to be
50:38
Speaker 1: locked into the idea that he has to leave in
50:40
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight should he win. And so here's what
50:45
Speaker 1: that sounded like when Laura Ingram tried to guide Trump
50:50
Speaker 1: threw a way of rationalizing that very stupid rand they got,
50:57
Speaker 1: you know, played a lot on the left and in
50:59
Speaker 1: the me from the standpoint of ending democracy and him
51:03
Speaker 1: just not taking de bait.
51:05
Speaker 3: They're also attacking you for other ridiculous reasons. They're saying
51:10
Speaker 3: that you said to a crowd two of Christians that
51:14
Speaker 3: they won't have to vote in the future.
51:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, let me say what I mean by that. I
51:19
Speaker 4: had a tremendous crowd speaking to Christians almost I mean,
51:23
Speaker 4: this was a crowd that liked me a lot. I
51:25
Speaker 4: think I'm in ninety seven percent or something, and they're
51:28
Speaker 4: treated very badly by this administration. Okay, Catholics are treated unbelievably.
51:33
Speaker 4: They're like persecuted. And if I might say, before I
51:36
Speaker 4: go into the other Jewish people, if you're Jewish and
51:40
Speaker 4: you vote for Biden or the Democrats or Kamala or
51:43
Speaker 4: whoever's going to run, I guess it's going to be her.
51:46
Speaker 4: But if you voted for her or the Democrats, you
51:49
Speaker 4: should have your head examined because nobody's ever been treated
51:52
Speaker 4: so badly by this This administration is destroying Israel, et cetera,
51:57
Speaker 4: et cetera. So with respect to like a statement like
52:01
Speaker 4: I made, that statement is very simple. I said, vote
52:06
Speaker 4: for me, You're not going to have to do whatever again.
52:08
Speaker 4: It's true because we have to get the vote out.
52:11
Speaker 4: Christians are not known as a big voting group. They
52:14
Speaker 4: don't vote, and I'm explaining that to them.
52:16
Speaker 2: You never vote.
52:18
Speaker 4: This time, vote, I'll straighten out the country. You won't
52:21
Speaker 4: have to vote anymore.
52:22
Speaker 2: I won't need you vote. You can go back there back.
52:24
Speaker 3: You don't have to vote for you because you have
52:25
Speaker 3: four years and off.
52:26
Speaker 2: Look, look is that.
52:27
Speaker 4: Christians are known you know who else doesn't vote. Gun
52:31
Speaker 4: owners don't vote.
52:32
Speaker 3: But just to be clear what you're saying, though you're
52:34
Speaker 3: not saying, it's being interpreted as you are not surprised
52:38
Speaker 3: to hear no by the left as well. They're never
52:40
Speaker 3: going to have another election, he.
52:41
Speaker 1: Says he.
52:43
Speaker 3: Can you even just respond it?
52:45
Speaker 4: I said, Christians, I started off by saying, just so
52:49
Speaker 4: you understand, you never vote. Christians do not vote. Well,
52:53
Speaker 4: they vote in very small percentages.
52:55
Speaker 2: Why.
52:55
Speaker 4: I don't know. Maybe they're disappointed in things that are happening.
52:59
Speaker 4: But for a long time I say you don't vote.
53:02
Speaker 4: I'm saying, go out, you must vote. November fifth is
53:06
Speaker 4: going to be the most important election in the history
53:08
Speaker 4: of our country, whether you vote earlier or not. We
53:10
Speaker 4: should have, by the way, one day voting. We should
53:13
Speaker 4: have voter ID, we should have proof of citizenship, and
53:17
Speaker 4: we should have paper ballots. Okay, that's why we should.
53:19
Speaker 2: But we don't have that.
53:20
Speaker 4: But I said to the Christians in the room, thousands
53:23
Speaker 4: of them, I said, typically Christians do not vote. Why
53:27
Speaker 4: it is, I don't know your rebellious something's going on.
53:30
Speaker 4: Don't worry about the future, vote on. You have to
53:33
Speaker 4: vote on November fifth. After that, you don't have to
53:36
Speaker 4: worry about voting anymore. I don't care, because we're going
53:38
Speaker 4: to fix the country will be fixed, and we won't
53:41
Speaker 4: even need you vote anymore, because frankly, we will have
53:44
Speaker 4: such love if you don't want to vote anymore, that's okay,
53:47
Speaker 4: And I think everybody understood it. I didn't know there
53:50
Speaker 4: was any now.
53:50
Speaker 1: Well, because folks, I don't even know what to say
53:56
Speaker 1: about that other than what I said in the reduction
54:00
Speaker 1: to that clip, I will add one other thing. You know,
54:03
Speaker 1: he's pleading with Christians to vote, By the way, I
54:07
Speaker 1: don't even know where he's getting this idea that Christians
54:09
Speaker 1: don't vote. I mean, yeah, the Christian right is not
54:12
Speaker 1: nearly the as strong a voting block as it used
54:15
Speaker 1: to be. Certainly, you know, a couple of decades ago.
54:19
Speaker 1: There's a lot of reasons for that, and I think
54:21
Speaker 1: Republicans have suffered because of it. But it's not as
54:24
Speaker 1: if there's some evidence that Christians vote in smaller numbers than.
54:29
Speaker 2: Other religious groups.
54:31
Speaker 1: But the part of that that I found to be
54:34
Speaker 1: most bizarre is that this is a guy who keeps
54:36
Speaker 1: saying that the last election was rigged. Well, when you
54:39
Speaker 1: say an election is rigged. There's a price to be
54:43
Speaker 1: paid for that. One, in my opinion, you're wrong and
54:46
Speaker 1: you lose credibility. But two, you're implicitly telling your fans
54:52
Speaker 1: that their votes may not count or may not matter.
54:55
Speaker 2: So why should I bother voting? Now?
54:58
Speaker 1: I get that, you know, because of your their own
55:00
Speaker 1: past comments about the election being rigged, you probably have
55:03
Speaker 1: to go out of your way to make sure people vote.
55:06
Speaker 1: But this notion that he can get away with saying, well,
55:08
Speaker 1: just do it this one time and then you have
55:10
Speaker 1: to never have to worry about it again without being
55:14
Speaker 1: accused of potentially being a threat to democracy, even when
55:19
Speaker 1: he won't take de bait from Laura Ingram to say no, no, no,
55:23
Speaker 1: I'm gone.
55:23
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty eight he didn't say that.
55:26
Speaker 1: In fact, the avoided saying that is just a classic
55:30
Speaker 1: indication of what a bad politician Donald Trump actually is
55:36
Speaker 1: and why he's been a loser in twenty eighteen, in
55:39
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and in twenty twenty two. I mean, it's
55:45
Speaker 1: just astonishing how people still think this guy is a
55:48
Speaker 1: political saffant of some sort. Yeah, there is some Trump
55:52
Speaker 1: magic and some Trump luck, and he has this incredible
55:57
Speaker 1: sway with the base of the Republican and there are
56:01
Speaker 1: a few people who would not normally be Republican voters
56:04
Speaker 1: that are enamored with Donald Trump. I get all that,
56:07
Speaker 1: but there is a huge price to pay for that,
56:10
Speaker 1: and this is an indication of that price. And it
56:14
Speaker 1: was not the only clip from that interview with Laura
56:17
Speaker 1: Ingram that I found to fit in this category. So
56:20
Speaker 1: Ingram also questioned Trump, I think, once again trying to
56:25
Speaker 1: guide him to the right answer, and he's not getting
56:28
Speaker 1: it on the issue of whether or not he should
56:31
Speaker 1: debate Kamala Harris. Now this is this is a classic
56:36
Speaker 1: point of frustration for me when it comes to Trump,
56:39
Speaker 1: because I actually think there could be some political hay
56:43
Speaker 1: to be made from Trump deciding he can't debate Harris.
56:49
Speaker 1: In fact, you know, I might even added to my
56:52
Speaker 1: fictitious Trump or theoretical Trump Convention speech that hey, you know,
56:57
Speaker 1: I don't know if I can debate Harris was with Biden,
57:01
Speaker 1: and I don't think that this is a legitimate candidacy.
57:04
Speaker 1: If they give her the nomination without even an open convention,
57:08
Speaker 1: that should be the messaging. And by the way, that
57:10
Speaker 1: could have still been the messaging post withdraw fact, that
57:13
Speaker 1: probably would have been the best time to do that,
57:15
Speaker 1: because then it would have been seen as the most relevant.
57:18
Speaker 1: But the message should not be what Trump is saying,
57:22
Speaker 1: which is convoluted. I'm gonna debate her now, I'm not
57:25
Speaker 1: gonna debate her. Well, wait, I'll wait until she's actually
57:27
Speaker 1: the nominee and then she's legitimate. No, if you want
57:31
Speaker 1: to not debate her, which I can totally understand, because
57:34
Speaker 1: I think she has a lot more to gain from
57:37
Speaker 1: a debate than Donald Trump does one, because I think
57:39
Speaker 1: she'll probably win. Certainly in the media's mind, she's gonna
57:42
Speaker 1: win whatever debate they may have between Trump and Harris.
57:47
Speaker 2: But also this is a huge.
57:49
Speaker 1: Moment for her to pass through the presidential threshold. Trump
57:54
Speaker 1: has already passed through the presidential threshold he was president
57:58
Speaker 1: for four years, has not, and that still matters. And
58:03
Speaker 1: one of the ways she gets to pass through this
58:05
Speaker 1: psychological presidential threshold in the minds of undecided voters is
58:11
Speaker 1: seeing her on the same stage with Donald Trump Mono
58:15
Speaker 1: amano or man versus woman in a live televised debate.
58:19
Speaker 1: That's a huge boon to her that Trump's going to
58:24
Speaker 1: get no benefit from that regardless of how the debate goes.
58:28
Speaker 1: So it's an inherent benefit for Harris.
58:30
Speaker 2: To do this.
58:31
Speaker 1: Well, if you want to avoid that, and I can
58:33
Speaker 1: totally understand why you would. At the very least, the
58:37
Speaker 1: argument you should be making is she's not a legitimate candidate,
58:42
Speaker 1: not that she's not gonna be the nominee. She's gonna
58:44
Speaker 1: be the nominee. This is not a legitimate process. If
58:49
Speaker 1: the Democrats come up with a nominee from a legitimate process,
58:53
Speaker 1: since they're all about process, they're all about democracy, at
58:57
Speaker 1: that point, I'll evaluate whether or not I should do
58:59
Speaker 1: a new debate agreement. I already made an agreement with Biden.
59:04
Speaker 1: He backed out, so that.
59:06
Speaker 2: Agreement is noll and void.
59:08
Speaker 1: But should the Democratic Party come up with a candidate
59:11
Speaker 1: through a legitimate process, then I will consider negotiating a
59:16
Speaker 1: new debate agreement. That should be the Trump take on this,
59:21
Speaker 1: But that's not.
59:21
Speaker 2: The Trump take on this.
59:22
Speaker 1: Instead, it's contradictory, it's convoluted, and here was Trump trying
59:27
Speaker 1: to explain it with Laura Ingram.
59:30
Speaker 4: I want to do a debate, but I also can
59:32
Speaker 4: say this, everybody knows who I am, and now people
59:36
Speaker 4: know who she is. She's a radical left lunatic. She'll
59:40
Speaker 4: destroy our country. She once open boards.
59:42
Speaker 2: Why not debater?
59:42
Speaker 4: Well wait, but because they already know everything.
59:46
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, that doesn't work. That doesn't even make any sense.
59:52
Speaker 2: We all know everything.
59:53
Speaker 1: Wait, wait a minute, hold on. If you really want
59:55
Speaker 1: to expose how terrible she is, your best opportunity is
59:59
Speaker 1: at a live debate. You should be thirsting for that opportunity. Unfortunately,
1:00:04
Speaker 1: the American people do not know how terrible she is.
1:00:08
Speaker 1: Her current approval ratings are proving that. The fact that
1:00:12
Speaker 1: she's now at least tied with you in the polls
1:00:14
Speaker 1: is proving that.
1:00:16
Speaker 2: So you should be chomping at the bit for this opportunity.
1:00:21
Speaker 1: And if you're not going to take the opportunity, the
1:00:23
Speaker 1: argument should be she's not a legitimate candidate. Thanks for
1:00:30
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