Latest / The Death Of Journalism / Episode Two Hundred Fifty Five: The Rorschach Test

Transcript

Episode Two Hundred Fifty Five: The Rorschach Test · The Death Of Journalism

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to episode two hundred and fifty five The Death
0:02
Speaker 1: of Journalism Podcast. My name is John Zigler. I'm your
0:05
Speaker 1: host on today's show. The Trump Putin Summit is essentially
0:09
Speaker 1: a rorshack test for how you view Trump. Putin provokes
0:13
Speaker 1: Trump to go to war against mail in balloting. Gavin
0:17
Speaker 1: Newsom decides he is the new Trump. The Taylor Swift
0:21
Speaker 1: interview on the Kelsey Podcast is historic, and the destruction
0:25
Speaker 1: of sports as we know it seems to be accelerating.
0:31
Speaker 1: We begin this episode of the podcast with a personal note.
0:35
Speaker 1: This is the official end of summer today in the
0:39
Speaker 1: Zigler household because it was the first day of school.
0:43
Speaker 1: As you probably know, my wife is a public school
0:46
Speaker 1: teacher and this year one of her students will be
0:49
Speaker 1: our seventh grade daughter, Grace, and also we have a
0:54
Speaker 1: third grade daughter, Diana, both of whom started school today
0:57
Speaker 1: as well. This is a big day in any family,
1:01
Speaker 1: but for us it's particularly significant for a number of reasons,
1:04
Speaker 1: not just the fact that Grace will be a student
1:08
Speaker 1: of her mom's officially this year for at least one class,
1:12
Speaker 1: but also because we take summers very, very very seriously
1:18
Speaker 1: in our family, mainly because my wife does understandably so.
1:23
Speaker 1: She lives a very grinding existence as a special ed
1:27
Speaker 1: public school teacher, and those two months or so that
1:31
Speaker 1: she has offer for the summer are basically all she
1:34
Speaker 1: looks forward to all year long, and our trip to
1:38
Speaker 1: Yosemite and usually some secondary trip and just the ability
1:43
Speaker 1: to be away from school. Summer is everything to my wife,
1:47
Speaker 1: and obviously summer is huge to my daughters, and when
1:51
Speaker 1: it ends, it ends hard. The entire environment, the weather
1:56
Speaker 1: system of our family dramatically changes in the days leading
2:00
Speaker 1: up to the first day of school. I have learned
2:03
Speaker 1: long ago that basically the worst two periods of the
2:07
Speaker 1: year are just after Christmas and just as summer vacation
2:12
Speaker 1: is ending. I now have to space at least the
2:15
Speaker 1: next nine months of my wife having to go through
2:19
Speaker 1: the absurdities of liberal public school education, and of course
2:23
Speaker 1: complaining about it on a daily basis, which is understandable,
2:27
Speaker 1: but I now have to deal with that, and of
2:28
Speaker 1: course she gets very upset at me because I'm staying
2:31
Speaker 1: at home and she's going off to work, and it's
2:35
Speaker 1: just a completely night and day existence between summertime and
2:41
Speaker 1: school year. And you know, as you get older, I'm
2:45
Speaker 1: fifty eight, and you start to realize that the time
2:48
Speaker 1: is quickly escaping from your grasp, and you look at
2:53
Speaker 1: the fact that you have two young kids, and you really,
2:56
Speaker 1: when it comes down to it, if you think about
2:58
Speaker 1: summers being real the focal point of the entire year,
3:02
Speaker 1: with two young daughters with a five year age gap,
3:07
Speaker 1: you really only have seven or eight prime summers, and
3:11
Speaker 1: we're down to our last couple I mean, in other words,
3:14
Speaker 1: where both kids are young and interested in someone of
3:18
Speaker 1: the same things and they at least most of the
3:21
Speaker 1: time get along, and this summer will be impossible to beat.
3:26
Speaker 1: I mean, this will likely go down as our best
3:28
Speaker 1: summer ever. We had all sorts of activities, the weather
3:32
Speaker 1: was amazing, there were no logistical major logistical problems. No
3:36
Speaker 1: one got hurt, no one was unhealthy. We did everything
3:39
Speaker 1: we wanted, We had visits from the grandparents. Everything that
3:43
Speaker 1: could possibly go well went well, and nothing went wrong.
3:48
Speaker 1: And there's a very good chance that we're never going
3:51
Speaker 1: to exceed that we may never even meet what happened
3:53
Speaker 1: this particular summer. But there's a downside to that because
3:56
Speaker 1: now it's over, and now we begin the school year,
4:00
Speaker 1: and everything in the Zigler household is going to change
4:04
Speaker 1: almost entirely for the worst. Although our little daughter, Diana,
4:08
Speaker 1: third grader, is very much looking forward to school because
4:11
Speaker 1: she's really good at it, she enjoys it, she makes
4:13
Speaker 1: friends easily, so there's at least that positive aspect of it.
4:17
Speaker 1: But it is now going to be a very new
4:20
Speaker 1: era in the Zigler family now that school has started.
4:23
Speaker 1: And I will say one more time, not what I
4:26
Speaker 1: say matters at all, but I'm a big believer that
4:29
Speaker 1: we are starting school way too early. I think we've
4:32
Speaker 1: lost something in labor day no longer being relevant. I mean,
4:37
Speaker 1: for all different sorts of reasons. I can go through them,
4:41
Speaker 1: and probably will at some other point, but I think
4:44
Speaker 1: we have lost a lot in our society, one simply
4:47
Speaker 1: by the communal moment. I mean, everybody starts school at
4:51
Speaker 1: a different time period now, so nobody has anything in common.
4:54
Speaker 1: Everyone ends school at a different time period now. And
4:57
Speaker 1: there are all sorts of aspects of what used to
5:01
Speaker 1: be American life when labor day mattered and most of
5:04
Speaker 1: the time you went to school after labor Day that
5:07
Speaker 1: are no longer in existence. One of them, by the way,
5:10
Speaker 1: is that this drives me crazy, and no one ever,
5:12
Speaker 1: mentions that high school football is now essentially a summer
5:15
Speaker 1: sport because you start it in the middle of August
5:18
Speaker 1: and you end it unless you make the playoffs even
5:21
Speaker 1: before Halloween, depending on the calendar. And that's just brog
5:25
Speaker 1: in my opinion. But that's another story for another day.
5:28
Speaker 1: So that's the situation with regard to the Zigler family. Obviously,
5:32
Speaker 1: the big news story of the last week was the
5:35
Speaker 1: summit in Alaska between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. I
5:39
Speaker 1: will mention one more time because I did at the
5:42
Speaker 1: end of last week's episode of the podcast that somewhere,
5:46
Speaker 1: although I haven't seen it in the interviews with her
5:48
Speaker 1: taking a victory lap, Sarah Palin has to feel some
5:51
Speaker 1: sense of vindication after she was unfairly mocked in the
5:55
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight election for making the factual statement
5:59
Speaker 1: to Charlie Gibson ABC News that you can see parts
6:03
Speaker 1: of Russia from land here in Alaska, and that of
6:07
Speaker 1: course is true. It was mocked by Tina Fey on
6:11
Speaker 1: Saturday Night Live, where she turned that into I can
6:14
Speaker 1: see Russia from my house, which to this day, it's
6:18
Speaker 1: extraordinary to me how many people seem to believe that
6:20
Speaker 1: that's essentially what she said, and the media did a
6:24
Speaker 1: horrendous job of sifting fact from fiction and letting people
6:29
Speaker 1: know that, Yeah, oh, by the way, Russia and Alaska
6:34
Speaker 1: are effectively the same land mass in some areas. In fact,
6:38
Speaker 1: Alaska used to be part of Russia, and during certain
6:41
Speaker 1: times of the year you can theoretically walk from Alaska
6:45
Speaker 1: to Russia. And that's why they had the summit in Alaska.
6:48
Speaker 1: And it was remarkable to me as someone who did
6:51
Speaker 1: a documentary film about the two thousand and eight election.
6:53
Speaker 1: It featured an exclusive interview with Sarah Palin. That was
6:56
Speaker 1: one of the subjects that we dealt with. How many
6:59
Speaker 1: people were suddenly now acknowledging gee, you know, Sarah Plen
7:03
Speaker 1: was actually right about this, And even I was kind
7:06
Speaker 1: of stunned by do you really not have any basic
7:10
Speaker 1: knowledge of geography? It's not that difficult. I realized that
7:15
Speaker 1: for most people it's not top of mind. But if
7:17
Speaker 1: you you know, it takes two seconds to investigate it,
7:20
Speaker 1: it's not a difficult concept. But that was one of
7:24
Speaker 1: the more remarkable elements of the Trump Putin summit as
7:29
Speaker 1: far as I was concerned, given the history of that
7:31
Speaker 1: whole situation in my small role in it now, as
7:34
Speaker 1: far as the summit itself, you know, I have been
7:38
Speaker 1: critical of the way Trump has handled this whole Ukraine
7:43
Speaker 1: Russia situation in the big picture. From a strategic standpoint,
7:47
Speaker 1: I mean, we have to remember this is a guy
7:49
Speaker 1: who on multiple occasions claimed that he could end this
7:52
Speaker 1: war in one day. That's what he said. Expectations are
7:56
Speaker 1: everything in life, and he created the expectation that this
8:00
Speaker 1: would be a situation that would be easily ended, that
8:03
Speaker 1: he and he alone could do it in one day.
8:06
Speaker 1: And obviously, you know, we're at the end of August
8:09
Speaker 1: now and we're nowhere near apparently an end to the
8:14
Speaker 1: war between Russia and Ukraine. And my biggest criticism of
8:19
Speaker 1: Trump from a strategic standpoint, I've been baffled by this
8:22
Speaker 1: because negotiating is Trump's forte. I mean, he's the guy
8:27
Speaker 1: who wrote the book The Art of the Deal, that's
8:29
Speaker 1: what he's most well known for. It seems to me
8:32
Speaker 1: as if it's been a major mistake to go to
8:36
Speaker 1: Russia first, right, I mean, if you're going to do
8:42
Speaker 1: this it strategically he is, he has said publicly in
8:46
Speaker 1: that infamous meeting, was Elensky that Zelensky has no cards.
8:50
Speaker 1: He's acknowledged publicly that Russia has the cards, Russia has
8:54
Speaker 1: the leverage, and so to me, what happened in this
8:58
Speaker 1: summit was a bit belated because because originally it seems
9:02
Speaker 1: as if Trump's plan was go to Zelensky first, find
9:06
Speaker 1: out what he will accept, and then go to Putin. Well,
9:11
Speaker 1: that can't work because inherently, if Putin knows he has
9:15
Speaker 1: the leverage, and you Trump have said publicly to the
9:19
Speaker 1: world that he has the leverage, there ain't no way
9:21
Speaker 1: in God's creation that he's going to accept any deal
9:26
Speaker 1: that's close to what Zelensky says is okay, it's just
9:30
Speaker 1: basic negotiating. If you know you have the leverage, what
9:33
Speaker 1: the guy with no leverage once is a non starter.
9:37
Speaker 1: You have to go to the person with leverage and
9:42
Speaker 1: figure out what will they accept, what's the bare minimum
9:45
Speaker 1: they will accept, and then you go back to Zelensky
9:48
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, do you want to eat the shit
9:50
Speaker 1: sandwich or not? Do you want the war to end
9:52
Speaker 1: or not? Well, it seems as if that that was
9:55
Speaker 1: at least an improvement, you know, going literally halfway. I
10:01
Speaker 1: guess you would call it to Putin to meet him
10:03
Speaker 1: in Alaska to find out, Okay, what will it take
10:07
Speaker 1: to end this situation? However, and I said it in
10:11
Speaker 1: the intro, this whole situation really is a rorshack test
10:16
Speaker 1: for how you've view Trump if you don't like Trump.
10:20
Speaker 1: There was a lot, a lot to be very cynical
10:24
Speaker 1: about and very critical about when it came to this
10:29
Speaker 1: entire summit. The idea that Trump literally rolled out the
10:33
Speaker 1: red carpet that he was applauding Putin. You know, he
10:37
Speaker 1: had to be to bomber flyover, I mean basically treating
10:42
Speaker 1: Putin like a conquering hero. And we all know the
10:46
Speaker 1: history of this situation, where it's been very obvious that
10:50
Speaker 1: Trump has at least some admiration for Putin. Now he's
10:53
Speaker 1: made some more critical comments more recently indicating that Putin
10:57
Speaker 1: keeps fooling him and isn't to be trusted. And yet
11:00
Speaker 1: it seems as if Trump was more than willing to
11:03
Speaker 1: trust Putin, at least on the things that he liked
11:05
Speaker 1: that Putin said. Many of them had absolutely nothing to
11:08
Speaker 1: do with the situation regarding the war with Ukraine. So
11:14
Speaker 1: I did not like the tone that was created by
11:19
Speaker 1: Trump but as someone who's always been very fair, maybe
11:23
Speaker 1: more fair than he deserves. The Trump, I'm willing because
11:26
Speaker 1: he has been able to pull the rabbit out of
11:28
Speaker 1: the hat in the past. I'm at least willing to
11:32
Speaker 1: give him some latitude, give him some space here. Maybe
11:39
Speaker 1: his craziness will actually work here. So I'm not making
11:42
Speaker 1: any conclusions about how this is all going to end.
11:45
Speaker 1: I'm just saying this is not the way I would
11:48
Speaker 1: do it, not the way it would make sense to
11:50
Speaker 1: do it, and I don't think it's right to treat
11:52
Speaker 1: putin this way. And it didn't appear, and I want
11:56
Speaker 1: to underline appear as if it worked, at least in
12:00
Speaker 1: the short run, because, based upon the conventional way of
12:05
Speaker 1: looking at these summits, this had all the signs of
12:10
Speaker 1: at least a borderline disaster and maybe a total disaster.
12:18
Speaker 1: The way these things work is ta leaves matter. Very
12:23
Speaker 1: seemingly small gestures are understandably extrapolated to interpret what actually transpired. Now,
12:33
Speaker 1: maybe Trump has so changed the world that that matrix
12:37
Speaker 1: is no longer relevant, that prism through which we see
12:41
Speaker 1: events no longer really matters. I'm open to that possibility. However,
12:46
Speaker 1: you cannot deny that there were several very concerning elements
12:51
Speaker 1: of this whole situation. I mean, first of all, the
12:55
Speaker 1: lunch got canceled. Second of all, there was no real
12:58
Speaker 1: press conference. There were no questions asked of Putin or
13:03
Speaker 1: Trump at this quote unquote press event. Maybe most concerningly,
13:08
Speaker 1: that event was totally dominated by Vladimir Putin. I mean,
13:14
Speaker 1: it is astonishing that an American president, on American soil,
13:20
Speaker 1: took part in a press event that was begun by
13:26
Speaker 1: Vladimir Putin and dominated by Vladimir Putin dominated. Now, is
13:33
Speaker 1: it possible that Trump agreed to that. It's hard for
13:36
Speaker 1: me to believe that he did, but it certainly did
13:39
Speaker 1: seem appear. It is easily to perceive that Putin had
13:46
Speaker 1: the upper hand in this whole situation. And that's certainly
13:49
Speaker 1: consistent with what we know of the history of this situation,
13:53
Speaker 1: specifically the relationship between Putin and Trump. My gosh, Trump's
13:58
Speaker 1: own words have been that Putin keeps lying to him
14:02
Speaker 1: and that Trump's sick and damn tired of it, and
14:07
Speaker 1: continuing with this narrative that Putin really manipulated Trump and
14:11
Speaker 1: got the better of him. Putin apparently on two separate occasions,
14:16
Speaker 1: one publicly and one privately, whispered sweet nothings into Trump's
14:22
Speaker 1: ear about two subjects that anybody with any knowledge of
14:26
Speaker 1: Trump would know would be an area where it was
14:31
Speaker 1: incredibly easy for Trump to be manipulated. His weak spots.
14:37
Speaker 1: I mean, everybody knows that Trump has a weak spot
14:40
Speaker 1: in his ego, and everybody knows that Trump has a
14:43
Speaker 1: weak spot when it comes to previous elections, specifically the
14:47
Speaker 1: twenty twenty election being rigged against him, and Putin, very
14:52
Speaker 1: smartly from a manipulation perspective, said publicly that if Trump
14:59
Speaker 1: had been pro resident, something that Trump has said many
15:01
Speaker 1: times previously, that if Trump had been president and had
15:05
Speaker 1: won the twenty twenty election, that there would be no
15:09
Speaker 1: war between Russia and Ukraine. Now, I have absolutely no
15:13
Speaker 1: idea if that's true or not. It could be true,
15:17
Speaker 1: it could be false, it could be Playton propaganda and
15:21
Speaker 1: overt manipulation. But that's what Putin said publicly, and of
15:26
Speaker 1: course that's gonna butter up Trump. I mean that is
15:30
Speaker 1: I mean, my gosh, that is as obvious an act
15:36
Speaker 1: of attempted manipulation as you could possibly imagine, and it
15:40
Speaker 1: seemingly worked. On Trump, and I always find it amazing.
15:45
Speaker 1: I mean, Maggot World baffles me in so many ways,
15:48
Speaker 1: but the inconsistency of their analysis of people and concepts
15:54
Speaker 1: and world events is just mind blowing. But I've even
15:58
Speaker 1: publicly asked for a chart, a Maga chart for when
16:02
Speaker 1: Putin is telling the truth and when he's absolutely not
16:06
Speaker 1: to be trusted. Could somebody please show me that, because
16:11
Speaker 1: when Putin said that if Trump had been president, there
16:14
Speaker 1: never would have been a war, Maga World completely accepted
16:18
Speaker 1: that as one hundred percent true. I have no idea
16:22
Speaker 1: if it's true, But I also know that Putin has
16:25
Speaker 1: a massive self interest to lie about that because he
16:30
Speaker 1: knows that Trump is going to lap that up. It's
16:33
Speaker 1: going to stroke Trump's ego, It's going to make Trump
16:37
Speaker 1: vulnerable to Putin's manipulation. And it seems as if it worked,
16:45
Speaker 1: because it wasn't just what would have happened had Trump
16:49
Speaker 1: won the twenty twenty election. According to Trump, Putin actually
16:55
Speaker 1: told Trump he did win the twenty twenty election because
17:00
Speaker 1: of voter fraud and specifically mail in ballots. Now, I
17:05
Speaker 1: have no idea how much expertise Putin has when it
17:11
Speaker 1: comes to American mail in ballots. But this was an
17:13
Speaker 1: absolutely extraordinary moment on Fox News Channel in an interview
17:19
Speaker 1: that Donald Trump did with Sean Hannity. And I think
17:22
Speaker 1: this is a great example of how desensitized we have
17:25
Speaker 1: become by the entire Trump era. I mean, this is
17:30
Speaker 1: one of those situations that you know, certainly ten years
17:34
Speaker 1: ago would have been absolutely so bonkers that it's all
17:39
Speaker 1: anybody would be talking about. And frankly, I don't think
17:42
Speaker 1: this got nearly as much attention as it probably deserved,
17:47
Speaker 1: largely because of the desensitization. But here is the President
17:52
Speaker 1: of the United States telling Sean Hannity the Vladimir Putin
17:57
Speaker 1: during a summit about the Ukraine War, where this subject
18:04
Speaker 1: really should have no relevance whatsoever, that Donald Trump actually
18:10
Speaker 1: won the twenty twenty election because of mail in ballots
18:16
Speaker 1: not being credible and or secure. And here's what that
18:20
Speaker 1: sounded like on Fox News Channel.
18:23
Speaker 2: Oh, Vladimir Putin said something one of the most interesting things.
18:27
Speaker 2: He said, your election was rigged because you have mail
18:31
Speaker 2: in voting. He said, mail in voting every election. He said,
18:35
Speaker 2: no country has mail in voting. It's impossible to have
18:38
Speaker 2: mail in voting, and have honest elections. And he said
18:41
Speaker 2: that to me, it was very truck because we talked
18:43
Speaker 2: about twenty twenty. He said, you won that election by
18:45
Speaker 2: so much, and that's how he got it, he said,
18:47
Speaker 2: And if you.
18:47
Speaker 1: Would have won, we wouldn't have had a war.
18:49
Speaker 2: You'd have all these millions of people alive now instead
18:51
Speaker 2: of dead. And he said, and you lost it because
18:55
Speaker 2: of mail in voting.
18:56
Speaker 3: It was a rigged election.
18:57
Speaker 2: But male in voting, Sean.
19:00
Speaker 1: Now, to be clear, I hate mail in balloting. We
19:04
Speaker 1: have universal mail in balloting here in California, and I
19:09
Speaker 1: think it is a complete joke. I think it is
19:14
Speaker 1: ripe for voter fraud. Not in the ways that Maga
19:17
Speaker 1: world thinks, but in my opinion. You know, it's obvious
19:22
Speaker 1: that that younger relatives vote for elderly relatives. It's incredibly
19:27
Speaker 1: easy for that to happen. Spouses vote for spouses in
19:32
Speaker 1: ways that I might not be consistent with their true intent.
19:36
Speaker 1: I have concerns about nursing homes and how ballots are
19:42
Speaker 1: are treated there, and whether or not that could be
19:45
Speaker 1: an area where a lot of people are voting for
19:48
Speaker 1: somebody else. I realize that a lot of people are
19:52
Speaker 1: very concerned about ballot harvesting, and I do think that's
19:55
Speaker 1: a valid concern. But I bottom line is I hate
19:57
Speaker 1: mail in, especially universe mail in balloting. And so it's
20:03
Speaker 1: not as if on the issue I disagree with Trump
20:06
Speaker 1: or I guess Putin. But the idea that Trump is
20:11
Speaker 1: even focused on this during a summit where he's trying
20:15
Speaker 1: to come to a peace deal on a war, and
20:18
Speaker 1: where he doesn't even appear to understand that Putin is
20:23
Speaker 1: obviously and clearly manipulating him, whether he's telling the truth
20:27
Speaker 1: or not, is just beyond extraordinary. And it's a further indication,
20:34
Speaker 1: using the rorshack test analogy, that if you have a
20:39
Speaker 1: negative or cynical view of Trump, there's a lot of
20:44
Speaker 1: information here, a lot of data points that makes you go,
20:47
Speaker 1: wait a minute, this did not go well at all?
20:51
Speaker 1: Did Trump get rolled? And one of those data points
20:56
Speaker 1: was an extraordinary report on Fox News Chat by a
21:01
Speaker 1: reporter by the name of Jackie Henrich, who was there
21:04
Speaker 1: in the room. Now she's on Fox News Channel, effectively
21:08
Speaker 1: state run television. Although Magoworld turns on Fox News Channel
21:12
Speaker 1: at every moment that they don't it's about nothing but
21:16
Speaker 1: positive talking points about Donald Trump. But here was a
21:20
Speaker 1: section of Heinrich report from the room where the press
21:27
Speaker 1: conference between Putin or press event between Putin and Trump
21:31
Speaker 1: took place, that went viral and provoked an enormous amount
21:38
Speaker 1: of backlash from Magaworld online. Here was Fox News Channel
21:43
Speaker 1: reporting that, you know, it didn't feel like things went
21:47
Speaker 1: nearly as well for Trump as we had hoped or expected.
21:52
Speaker 1: And here's what it sounded like on Fox News Channel.
21:55
Speaker 4: Happened back there.
21:56
Speaker 5: It was just very unusual, atypical, and I think we're
22:00
Speaker 5: all awaiting the readout because the way that it felt
22:04
Speaker 5: in the room was not good. It did not seem
22:09
Speaker 5: like things went well, and it seemed like Putin came
22:12
Speaker 5: in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say,
22:16
Speaker 5: and got his photo next to the president and then left.
22:18
Speaker 5: Of course, that is only the piece of the picture
22:20
Speaker 5: that we have right now, and certainly President Trump, who
22:23
Speaker 5: is the host and who is the president, would not
22:26
Speaker 5: want to, I think, enable something that would make him
22:29
Speaker 5: look weak. But we are eagerly awaiting to hear the
22:34
Speaker 5: background on that. And I will also note that we
22:36
Speaker 5: didn't see any sort of scowls on the faces of
22:39
Speaker 5: the likes of Steve Witcoff or Secretary Rubio or any
22:42
Speaker 5: of the other members of the US delegation. And I
22:45
Speaker 5: think had it been concerning, we might have seen something there.
22:48
Speaker 5: But just just to paint a picture for you of
22:51
Speaker 5: in the room, how it felt, what we're wondering about,
22:54
Speaker 5: what we need to know to put the pieces together
22:56
Speaker 5: and fully understand, but we all just witnessed.
22:59
Speaker 1: Now, when I saw that, I was like, oh my gosh,
23:01
Speaker 1: she is going to get an enormous amount of backlash.
23:06
Speaker 1: I believed what she was saying, or I believe that
23:08
Speaker 1: she thought that that was the truth of the matter,
23:11
Speaker 1: based upon her first hand observations. By the way, there
23:15
Speaker 1: were other reporters who had similar observations about what was
23:20
Speaker 1: going on, but of course they don't work for Fox NewsChannel.
23:23
Speaker 1: The fact that this was a Fox News Channel report
23:27
Speaker 1: was why it was considered to be so significant, why
23:30
Speaker 1: it went viral, and why it created so much backlash,
23:35
Speaker 1: and so much backlash that later on the reporter was
23:41
Speaker 1: told by an anchor, well, you know, Trump is telling
23:44
Speaker 1: people privately that the meeting went as a ten out
23:47
Speaker 1: of ten or something to that effect, and she basically
23:51
Speaker 1: backed down. Oh good, glad to hear it like, I
23:54
Speaker 1: mean that that's not journalism. First of all, what Trump
23:59
Speaker 1: says privately trying to put lipstick on a potential pig
24:03
Speaker 1: is not very credible. Now I realize Trump is always
24:07
Speaker 1: gonna declare victory. That's the one of the core tenets
24:12
Speaker 1: of Trump's entire modus operaan day. Always, always, always declare victory.
24:17
Speaker 1: Everything is always awesome. And so to me, that doesn't
24:21
Speaker 1: have a lot of weight, especially when it's done on
24:25
Speaker 1: background to a Fox News Channel reporter or anchor, and
24:28
Speaker 1: then that gets used as a way to try to
24:31
Speaker 1: force the reporter on the scene to back down from
24:35
Speaker 1: their observations which were not at all positive. Again, I
24:39
Speaker 1: want to emphasize, is it possible that you know, Trump
24:43
Speaker 1: has a greater plan here, or that Trump's craziness is
24:46
Speaker 1: actually gonna work in the end? Yeah, I think that's possible.
24:50
Speaker 1: I don't know if it will. I don't know if
24:52
Speaker 1: it won't. But on the surface, based upon the facts
24:57
Speaker 1: we have and based upon basic observations and basic common sense,
25:03
Speaker 1: I don't think this went well, and I don't think
25:05
Speaker 1: this situation is likely to end in a very good
25:09
Speaker 1: deal or any deal at all, necessarily, and My opinion
25:14
Speaker 1: on that was further solidified by Secretary of State Marc
25:20
Speaker 1: or Rubio, who I like, who I supported in the
25:23
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen presidential election against Donald Trump, and who normally
25:27
Speaker 1: is really really good on these Sunday morning television shows.
25:32
Speaker 1: He went on I think three of them, maybe more
25:35
Speaker 1: than that on Sunday to try to spin what happened
25:38
Speaker 1: with regard to the Trump Putin summit, and frankly, I
25:42
Speaker 1: didn't think Rubio fared that well. It may not have
25:45
Speaker 1: been his fault because he didn't have a very good
25:47
Speaker 1: fact pattern with which to work, but you know, I
25:51
Speaker 1: thought it was particularly interesting that when he went and
25:53
Speaker 1: faced the nation with Margaret Brennan, and Margaret Brennan has been,
25:57
Speaker 1: you know, getting her ass kicked by Rue and other
26:01
Speaker 1: members of the Trump administration throughout this entire year, so
26:04
Speaker 1: I felt this was particularly significant that even Margaret Brennan
26:10
Speaker 1: seemed to get the better of Mark or Rubio when
26:13
Speaker 1: it came to just the basics of what appears to
26:17
Speaker 1: be shaping up as a potential deal that is very
26:21
Speaker 1: very much in the favor of Putin and Russia. I
26:25
Speaker 1: talked about how this problem, this inherent negotiating problem where
26:30
Speaker 1: one side, where even Trump is acknowledged, one side has
26:35
Speaker 1: the leverage, one side has the cards. Well, you have
26:38
Speaker 1: to go to them first, and you have to hope
26:40
Speaker 1: that they're at least somewhat reasonable so that you can
26:43
Speaker 1: go to the side without the leverage in this case
26:46
Speaker 1: Ukraine and Zelensky and say will you accept most or
26:50
Speaker 1: all of this so that we can get a piece deal. Well,
26:54
Speaker 1: Putin seems to be overplaying his hand, which is consistent
26:58
Speaker 1: with his history, and who could blame him when Trump
27:02
Speaker 1: himself told the whole world that Zelenski doesn't have any cards.
27:07
Speaker 1: So Putin appears to be asking for the world effectively
27:13
Speaker 1: and putting the United States and Ukraine in a seemingly
27:17
Speaker 1: almost impossible situation because in order to get a deal,
27:22
Speaker 1: they're going to have to capitulate to Putin in Russia
27:25
Speaker 1: in an extraordinary fashion, even giving Putin land that he
27:30
Speaker 1: didn't even quote unquote win in the war. And here's
27:34
Speaker 1: what it sounded like on CBS when Margaret Brennan interviewed
27:38
Speaker 1: and asked pretty pointed questions of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
27:43
Speaker 4: Ultimately, if Vladimir Putin is going to be offered land
27:48
Speaker 4: that he has not seized yet but negotiates his way into.
27:52
Speaker 4: Doesn't this set a dangerous precedent that the United States
27:56
Speaker 4: now accepts this concept that it is okay to seize
28:00
Speaker 4: land by force.
28:04
Speaker 6: Well, Putin's already sees land by force, and that in
28:07
Speaker 6: and of itself is not a positive precedent this.
28:09
Speaker 1: Whole war demand withdrawal for precedent.
28:12
Speaker 6: Well, again, here's the In order to have a deal
28:15
Speaker 6: here to in to reach the end of this conflict,
28:18
Speaker 6: both sides are going to have to make concessions. That's
28:20
Speaker 6: just a fact any negotiation. No, no, But but this is
28:26
Speaker 6: not about accepting. This is about what Ukraine can accept
28:28
Speaker 6: and what Russia can accept. They both have to accept it,
28:30
Speaker 6: otherwise there won't be a peace deal. Okay, if there
28:32
Speaker 6: aren't concessions, if one side gets everything they want, that's
28:35
Speaker 6: called surrender. That's called the end of the war through surrender.
28:38
Speaker 6: And that's not what we're close to doing, because neither
28:40
Speaker 6: side here is on the verge of surrender anything close
28:42
Speaker 6: to it. So in order for there to be a
28:44
Speaker 6: peace deal, this is just a fact. We may not
28:46
Speaker 6: like it, it may not be pleasant, it may be distasteful,
28:49
Speaker 6: but in order for there to be an end of
28:51
Speaker 6: the war, there are things Russia wants that it cannot
28:53
Speaker 6: get and there are things Ukraine wants that it's not
28:55
Speaker 6: going to get. Both sides are going to have to
28:57
Speaker 6: give up something in order to get to the table
29:00
Speaker 6: in order to make this happen. That's just the way
29:02
Speaker 6: it is. And I mean, the sooner we accept that
29:04
Speaker 6: that's the reality. Now what those things are, it's going
29:07
Speaker 6: to be up to both sides. There's no conditions that
29:09
Speaker 6: can be imposed on Ukraine. They're going to have to
29:11
Speaker 6: accept things, but they're gonna have to get things too.
29:14
Speaker 6: And so, for example, Ukraine is a sovereign country. They
29:16
Speaker 6: have a right like every sovereign country does in the world,
29:19
Speaker 6: to have the enter into security alliances with other countries
29:22
Speaker 6: to prevent an invasion in the future, to prevent threats
29:24
Speaker 6: to the national security. That's not an unreasonable request. That's
29:28
Speaker 6: something needs to be worked on. Territories will have to
29:30
Speaker 6: be discussed. It's just a fact. And there are things
29:33
Speaker 6: that maybe Russia's holding now that they're going to have
29:35
Speaker 6: to give up, who knows. The point is, we need
29:37
Speaker 6: to create a scenario where that becomes possible. And that's
29:40
Speaker 6: why this has been so hard, because neither side up
29:43
Speaker 6: to now has been willing to give on some of
29:46
Speaker 6: these things.
29:46
Speaker 1: But we'll see if that's possible.
29:48
Speaker 6: It may not be, but we're gonna try, and we're
29:49
Speaker 6: gonna do everything we can to try to achieve a peace.
29:52
Speaker 1: So to me, Rubio and his answers there are not
29:57
Speaker 1: particularly compelling or convincing or confidence inducing that there can
30:03
Speaker 1: be a deal here where Putin doesn't dramatically benefit from
30:08
Speaker 1: having invaded Ukraine. And that's a problem. And to the
30:14
Speaker 1: larger point of okay, you know, you go to Putin first,
30:17
Speaker 1: you find out what he will accept, then you go
30:19
Speaker 1: to Zelenski. Well, Zelenski came to the White House, to Washington,
30:24
Speaker 1: d C. It's important to point out he didn't come alone.
30:27
Speaker 1: Many European leaders came with him because I think they
30:29
Speaker 1: were terrified of the idea that Donald Trump was essentially
30:33
Speaker 1: the lone mediator in this situation. And and look, I
30:37
Speaker 1: mean I don't like Zelinsky at all. I mean I
30:40
Speaker 1: don't like Zelensky hardly anymore than I like Putin. I
30:42
Speaker 1: mean I like him maybe a little bit more, but
30:45
Speaker 1: not by much so I don't like anybody here. I've
30:47
Speaker 1: said this many times. I don't have a dog in
30:49
Speaker 1: this hut. I don't trust any of the of the
30:52
Speaker 1: main actors here. I'm not sure this situation is directly
30:56
Speaker 1: in our in our own uh you know, spear of interest.
31:01
Speaker 1: I mean it's important I acknowledge that, and maybe nobody
31:04
Speaker 1: else can negotiate an end to this because of our
31:07
Speaker 1: unique role. But to me, this has not been the
31:10
Speaker 1: most important issue. I'm much more of a domestic guy.
31:13
Speaker 1: But the bottom line of this is that if you
31:17
Speaker 1: have I don't like it. I don't like Zelensky, but
31:19
Speaker 1: you've got to have Zelensky on board, and so you
31:23
Speaker 1: bring him. And if you're Zelensky, you got to be
31:25
Speaker 1: a bit concerned that Donald Trump is the guy who
31:29
Speaker 1: has your fate in his hands. And I think European
31:33
Speaker 1: leaders were very concerned about that, and they came to Washington,
31:39
Speaker 1: d C. With him in a show of support. And
31:42
Speaker 1: you know, that meeting with Trump seemed to go a
31:45
Speaker 1: lot better. Certainly couldn't have gotten much worse than the
31:48
Speaker 1: infamous meeting earlier this year where Trump declared to the
31:52
Speaker 1: world that Zelensky doesn't have the cards and that Putin
31:55
Speaker 1: has all the leverage, which I think we're still paying
31:57
Speaker 1: for as of this moment. But there were a couple
32:01
Speaker 1: of very strange moments in that meeting that I think
32:07
Speaker 1: just show how effective Putin's manipulation of Trump was, as
32:14
Speaker 1: well as how easily Trump is distracted, because there were
32:20
Speaker 1: two situations that occurred during the public meeting with Zelenski
32:25
Speaker 1: in front of the press at the White House, where
32:29
Speaker 1: Trump ended up talking about American elections and at least
32:36
Speaker 1: hopefully trolling or joking even about the twenty twenty six
32:43
Speaker 1: or twenty twenty eight elections being canceled, which of course,
32:50
Speaker 1: you know, drives people crazy because that's the fear that
32:52
Speaker 1: Trump's going to run for a third term or we're
32:54
Speaker 1: not going to have democracy and he'll be able to
32:56
Speaker 1: stay in office into perpetuity until he does, and he's
33:00
Speaker 1: a monarch, and all of which you know, I find concerning,
33:04
Speaker 1: but I also acknowledge is mostly a joke. But I
33:07
Speaker 1: do think that there are certain times and places and
33:11
Speaker 1: subjects about which you don't joke, and this is clearly
33:15
Speaker 1: one of them. And so there are two clips from
33:17
Speaker 1: this Zelenski meeting where Trump gets totally sidetracked on election issues. Again,
33:23
Speaker 1: it's important to point out Putin put him down this
33:26
Speaker 1: path because Putin has now further convinced him that he
33:30
Speaker 1: won the twenty twenty election, which he did not. And
33:34
Speaker 1: you know, Trump uses the opportunity of Zelenski being there.
33:39
Speaker 1: And it's important to point out Ukraine did cancel an
33:42
Speaker 1: election because they were in the middle of a war
33:45
Speaker 1: with Russia, which I do think is a unique situation.
33:48
Speaker 1: I'm not supporting it, I'm not defending it, but we
33:51
Speaker 1: aren't Ukraine either. I see a lot of people online saying, well,
33:54
Speaker 1: if they did it, you know, why can't we do it.
33:57
Speaker 1: Trump's just showing the hypocrisy of the situation. No, we're
34:00
Speaker 1: the United States of America. We're held to a different standard,
34:04
Speaker 1: at least should be than Ukraine. And so here's the
34:08
Speaker 1: first of these two clips from the Zelensky meeting, where
34:11
Speaker 1: Trump uses Zelensky to try to show that, you know,
34:15
Speaker 1: if he really wanted to, I guess he could cancel
34:18
Speaker 1: the election. Of course, his fans think he's joking and
34:22
Speaker 1: trolling the left, which I would like to believe is
34:26
Speaker 1: in fact the case. But I still believe it's highly inappropriate.
34:29
Speaker 1: And here's what that sounded like at the White House.
34:32
Speaker 3: Legal elections, So you shay during it. During the war,
34:36
Speaker 3: you can't have elections. So let me just say three
34:39
Speaker 3: and a half years from now.
34:41
Speaker 2: So you mean, if we happen to be in a
34:43
Speaker 2: war with somebody, no more elections.
34:46
Speaker 3: So I wonder what the fake I got a question
34:53
Speaker 3: for you? This legal elections?
34:56
Speaker 2: So you shay during it. During the war, you can't
34:59
Speaker 2: have election. So let me just say three and a
35:01
Speaker 2: half years from now. So you mean, if we happen
35:05
Speaker 2: to be in.
35:05
Speaker 3: A war with somebody, no more elections. So I wonder
35:11
Speaker 3: what the fai? I got a question for you? This
35:16
Speaker 3: sounds the fate.
35:18
Speaker 1: Now, that's just inappropriate. That's wrong. You know, to use
35:23
Speaker 1: an incredibly significant meeting with a foreign leader where you're
35:26
Speaker 1: trying to broke your peace with Russia and you're in
35:29
Speaker 1: front of the world press to even joke about the
35:33
Speaker 1: fact that you might cancel our presidential elections is totally wrong.
35:40
Speaker 1: And I get that Trump was very likely joking, But
35:45
Speaker 1: that's the way that a fire wall, see there needs
35:49
Speaker 1: to be. If we used to believe in firewalls, we
35:51
Speaker 1: used to believe that the slippery slope was a very
35:54
Speaker 1: dangerous concept. We've forgotten that for some reason. But there
35:58
Speaker 1: needs to be firewalls to protect the core. And obviously
36:04
Speaker 1: the core of the United States of America is that
36:07
Speaker 1: we have free and democratic elections, and we have a
36:09
Speaker 1: presidential election every four years, come hell or high water, right.
36:13
Speaker 1: And the way that that firewar wall gets diminished is
36:18
Speaker 1: by joking about it and having the President of the
36:21
Speaker 1: United States joke about it and desensitize people to the
36:27
Speaker 1: absurdity of the concept. And yes, I'm willing to acknowledge
36:31
Speaker 1: this was a joke, this was a troll, but it
36:34
Speaker 1: has significance. It has significance in the long run, if
36:39
Speaker 1: only by the way, this is probably the best case scenario.
36:42
Speaker 1: Let's say Trump has absolutely positively no interest in serving
36:46
Speaker 1: past twenty twenty eight, which is the most likely scenario, right,
36:50
Speaker 1: But the next time someone jokes about this or makes
36:55
Speaker 1: an allusion to this kind of thing, they can rely
36:59
Speaker 1: on the idea, well, Trump did it, Why can't I
37:02
Speaker 1: do it. I'm just joking, and maybe they won't be joking.
37:07
Speaker 1: My point is that over time we get desensitized that
37:11
Speaker 1: the slippery slope matters, and that you must maintain a
37:16
Speaker 1: firewall to prevent these kind of things from ever coming
37:20
Speaker 1: close to happening, and that means you don't joke about it.
37:25
Speaker 1: As the president of the United States, especially in such
37:29
Speaker 1: a highly charged and highly public situation. This was totally
37:34
Speaker 1: wrong for Trump to do this, even if it was
37:38
Speaker 1: a joke, even if it was a troll that his
37:40
Speaker 1: fans love, because they know it drives the liberal media crazy.
37:44
Speaker 1: You know what, the liberal media absolutely should go crazy
37:48
Speaker 1: in a situation like this, And if a Democratic president
37:52
Speaker 1: ever did this, the right wing media would be going bananas.
37:57
Speaker 1: But of course they don't in this situation, because Trump
37:59
Speaker 1: has all ready set the predicate that he's a jokester,
38:03
Speaker 1: he's a troll artist. And I'm sorry, even if that's
38:08
Speaker 1: the case, which I'm willing to acknowledge, is the farley.
38:11
Speaker 1: The farley by far the most likely scenario. That is
38:16
Speaker 1: still a dangerous situation. You're still starting us down the
38:22
Speaker 1: slippery slope because at a certain point, the line between
38:27
Speaker 1: joking and you're not sure if someone's joking, oh my god,
38:31
Speaker 1: they're serious, and oh my gosh. Much of the public
38:35
Speaker 1: has been desensitized to this entire issue, and now maybe
38:39
Speaker 1: they can get away with it is not that far fetched.
38:43
Speaker 1: And for Trump to do it basically just to tickle
38:47
Speaker 1: his base and to tickle his own fancy and to
38:50
Speaker 1: give himself a thrill because he's trolling his enemies is wrong.
38:55
Speaker 1: It's selfish, it's wrong, it's stupid, and it's dangerous. But
39:00
Speaker 1: that wasn't the only time during this meeting with Zelenski
39:03
Speaker 1: that Trump decided that American elections, and very specifically issues
39:10
Speaker 1: that make him feel better about himself, were worthy of
39:14
Speaker 1: being discussed. And this is not a coincidence that, if
39:19
Speaker 1: we believe Trump putin whispered this into his ear, that
39:22
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Trump is now fully at war
39:27
Speaker 1: with the issue of mail in balloting. Before the Zelensky meeting,
39:31
Speaker 1: he put out a social media post saying that he's
39:34
Speaker 1: signing an executive order that's going to attempt to ban
39:37
Speaker 1: mail in voting, which I don't have any idea how
39:41
Speaker 1: in the world Trump thinks he has the authority to
39:44
Speaker 1: do that. We do not have federal elections in this country.
39:49
Speaker 1: We have state and local elections, and so I do
39:53
Speaker 1: not know how in the world Trump thinks he has
39:56
Speaker 1: the authority to do this. But it's not a coincid
40:00
Speaker 1: science that putin whispers in his ear in Alaska. He
40:04
Speaker 1: comes back and declares via social media plans for this
40:09
Speaker 1: executive order, which I don't think is going to have
40:12
Speaker 1: any real power, at least not in the Blue and
40:15
Speaker 1: Purple States. Maybe in the Red States, but that wasn't
40:18
Speaker 1: an issue to begin with, because the Red States are
40:20
Speaker 1: the only ones that are really listening to most of
40:22
Speaker 1: these executive orders. But here, in this very high profile,
40:27
Speaker 1: very important meeting, Trump gets asked about the issue, largely
40:31
Speaker 1: because he had just put out a social media post
40:34
Speaker 1: about it, and he goes on a diatribe again, one
40:38
Speaker 1: that in principle I agree with, although I think that
40:41
Speaker 1: Trump focuses on the wrong elements that are problematic regarding
40:47
Speaker 1: mail in balloting. But here was Donald Trump again at
40:51
Speaker 1: the White House, going off on a diatribe about stopping
40:56
Speaker 1: mail in voting, something that I don't believe he is
40:59
Speaker 1: the authority to actually do.
41:01
Speaker 3: Pushed out on social media about doing away with mail
41:05
Speaker 3: in ballots and potentially electronic voting machines. Can you expend
41:08
Speaker 3: on that help port Well, that's a very off topic.
41:10
Speaker 7: Just really quickly, mail in ballots are corrupt mail in ballots.
41:15
Speaker 7: You can never have a real democracy with mail in ballants,
41:19
Speaker 7: and we as a Republican party, are going to do
41:22
Speaker 7: everything possible that we get rid of mail in ballots.
41:25
Speaker 7: We're going to start with an executive order that's being
41:28
Speaker 7: written right now by the best lawyers in the country
41:31
Speaker 7: to end mail in ballots because they're corrupt. And do
41:37
Speaker 7: you know that we're the only country in the world
41:38
Speaker 7: I believe I may be wrong, but just about the.
41:41
Speaker 3: Only country in the.
41:41
Speaker 7: World that uses them because of what's happened, massive fraud
41:45
Speaker 7: all over the place.
41:46
Speaker 3: The other thing, we want change of the machines.
41:49
Speaker 8: For all of the money they spend, it's approximately ten
41:54
Speaker 8: times more expensive than paper ballots, and paper ballots are
41:57
Speaker 8: very sophisticated with the watermark paper and everything else.
42:00
Speaker 3: We would get secure.
42:01
Speaker 7: Elections, we'd get much faster results the machines. I mean
42:04
Speaker 7: they say we're going to have the results in two weeks.
42:07
Speaker 7: With paper ballots, you have the results that night. Most
42:11
Speaker 7: people almost but most people many countries use paper ballots.
42:15
Speaker 3: It's the most secure form.
42:17
Speaker 7: So between paper ballots, very very important paper ballots and
42:22
Speaker 7: I think maybe even more important the mail in voting.
42:25
Speaker 3: We're going to end mail in voting. It's a fraud
42:29
Speaker 3: if you have mail.
42:30
Speaker 7: Even Jimmy Carter with this commission, they set it up,
42:33
Speaker 7: he said.
42:33
Speaker 3: The one thing about mail in voting, you.
42:35
Speaker 7: Will never have an honor selection if you have mail
42:38
Speaker 7: in it. And it's time that the Republicans get tough
42:41
Speaker 7: and stop it because the Democrats want it. It's the
42:44
Speaker 7: only way they can get elected because with men and
42:48
Speaker 7: women's sports, and with transgender for everybody, and open borders and.
42:52
Speaker 3: All of the horrible things. And now the new thing
42:54
Speaker 3: is they love crime.
42:56
Speaker 7: They're fighting me on the fact that I've made DC safe.
43:01
Speaker 3: We're not going to get mugged, beaten.
43:02
Speaker 7: Up or killed like all the people you've been watching
43:06
Speaker 7: get so badly hurt.
43:07
Speaker 3: I'm glad.
43:08
Speaker 7: I hate to take your time with this, but I'm
43:10
Speaker 7: glad you asked me that question, sir. We're going to
43:13
Speaker 7: stop mail in ballots because it's corrupt. You know, when
43:17
Speaker 7: you go to a voting booth and you do it
43:19
Speaker 7: the right way, and you go to a state that
43:21
Speaker 7: runs it properly, you go in. They even ask me.
43:24
Speaker 7: They asked me for my license plate for identify. I said,
43:27
Speaker 7: I don't know if I have it, he said, sir,
43:29
Speaker 7: you have to have it. They're very impressed, actually, but
43:32
Speaker 7: it's very hard to cheat with mail in voting. As
43:36
Speaker 7: you know what happens in California. It's so corrupt where
43:39
Speaker 7: some people get five, six, seven ballots delivered to them.
43:43
Speaker 3: Now, we got to stop mail in voting, and the
43:45
Speaker 3: Republicans have to lead the charge.
43:47
Speaker 7: The Democrats want it because they have horrible policy. If
43:50
Speaker 7: you have mail in voting, you're not going to have
43:52
Speaker 7: many Democrats get elected again.
43:54
Speaker 1: I want to emphasize I hate mail in balloting as
43:59
Speaker 1: much as a Trump does. I think maybe more so
44:05
Speaker 1: because of the fact that we have it universally in
44:09
Speaker 1: the state of California. But I don't believe that mail
44:13
Speaker 1: in balloting is why Trump lost the twenty twenty election.
44:17
Speaker 1: This is clearly why he cares so much about it,
44:21
Speaker 1: because he thinks it's the path. By the way, whatever
44:23
Speaker 1: happened to the dominion voting systems situation. We'll get to
44:29
Speaker 1: more of that in a second, because there's a settlement
44:31
Speaker 1: legally in that circumstance. But you know, the narrative has
44:35
Speaker 1: changed pretty significantly on how Trump had the twenty twenty
44:38
Speaker 1: elections stolen from him. It used to be rigged, Now
44:42
Speaker 1: it's mail in balloting. Look, I think the twenty twenty
44:46
Speaker 1: election should have an asterisk because of COVID. I mean,
44:50
Speaker 1: I have been very very clear that COVID was used
44:54
Speaker 1: as a weapon to destroy the economy and to fundamentally
44:59
Speaker 1: alter the nature of that election. And yes, the way
45:02
Speaker 1: that that election was actually conducted, and yes, that's why
45:07
Speaker 1: Joe Biden got a record number of votes because we
45:10
Speaker 1: had universal mail in balloting. And I have no doubt
45:14
Speaker 1: that there was fraud. I don't think it was organized.
45:18
Speaker 1: I don't think it was large enough to be the
45:20
Speaker 1: difference between Trump winning and losing, because it really wasn't
45:24
Speaker 1: all that close in twenty twenty. But I fully acknowledge
45:29
Speaker 1: that the twenty twenty election was a farce, but it
45:33
Speaker 1: was not stolen and it was not rigged. That being said,
45:37
Speaker 1: I hate mail in balloting. I don't think Trump has
45:41
Speaker 1: the authority to do what he's claiming he's going to do.
45:44
Speaker 1: And I don't understand how this becomes a major issue
45:47
Speaker 1: while you're trying to come up with a peace plan
45:51
Speaker 1: between Russia and Ukraine, and even Trump seemingly felt badly
45:56
Speaker 1: about raising the issue during that event, which shows you
46:00
Speaker 1: just how bad it must be for Trump to even
46:02
Speaker 1: feel guilty about it. You know that it's totally inappropriate
46:06
Speaker 1: to be raising this issue at that time, but you
46:09
Speaker 1: can't take away the context of the fact that, according
46:13
Speaker 1: to Trump, it was Putin who whispered this in his
46:16
Speaker 1: ear just a couple of days before. I mean, there's
46:19
Speaker 1: a direct line. I'm sorry, folks, there's a direct line
46:24
Speaker 1: between Putin saying that to Trump and Alaska and now
46:28
Speaker 1: Trump going to war against mail in balloting. And by
46:32
Speaker 1: the way, and you know, my opinion on the whole
46:34
Speaker 1: Russia Gate situation is extremely nuanced. I'm not going to
46:38
Speaker 1: go through it again. Yes, the media completely blew it.
46:42
Speaker 1: Yes it was way overblown. Yes there was no direct collusion. However,
46:47
Speaker 1: it's clear that Russia did attempt to help Trump, and
46:50
Speaker 1: that Trump did some things he should never have done,
46:52
Speaker 1: and he was trying to hide those things, and those
46:56
Speaker 1: attempts to hide things got misinterpreted as him being some
46:59
Speaker 1: sort of a Manchurian candidate. I mean, that's the short
47:02
Speaker 1: version of what happened. The Steele dossier was wrong, but
47:07
Speaker 1: I don't believe that there was some sort of massive
47:11
Speaker 1: conspiracy to have a coup against Trump. So I have
47:16
Speaker 1: basically my opinion on Russiagate is not shared by anybody,
47:19
Speaker 1: and it doesn't please anybody. But the reality here is
47:25
Speaker 1: it's not exactly a great argument that Russiagate in twenty
47:31
Speaker 1: sixteen was completely bullshit and there was nothing to it.
47:37
Speaker 1: When you are taking the word of Vladimir Putin that
47:41
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty election was rigged against you, and then
47:46
Speaker 1: using Putin's testimony to you to motivate you to fundamentally
47:52
Speaker 1: alter the nature of our elections going forward, and oh,
47:55
Speaker 1: by the way, joking that you might cancel the next
47:58
Speaker 1: presidential election. I mean, I'm sorry, folks. I mean I'm
48:04
Speaker 1: not saying that that means that there was more to it.
48:07
Speaker 1: I'm just saying that that's that's not a real great
48:10
Speaker 1: fact pattern. If that's your argument, and part of it's
48:16
Speaker 1: Trump being Trump, I get it. I understand all that,
48:20
Speaker 1: but I don't think that as of right now, there's
48:23
Speaker 1: any signs that this has been effective and trying to
48:25
Speaker 1: get a piece deal. I think it shows that he
48:29
Speaker 1: is easily manipulated by Putin and that he is being
48:33
Speaker 1: manipulated now. I mean, there was the situation during the
48:37
Speaker 1: meeting with Zelensky where apparently Trump called Putin and decided
48:41
Speaker 1: to talk to him alone, which I don't have a
48:44
Speaker 1: huge problem with. I get as a as a mediator
48:48
Speaker 1: that you want everyone to have privacy and you want
48:51
Speaker 1: to be able to say things more freely without you know,
48:54
Speaker 1: Zelensky hearing exactly how the sausage is being made. I
48:58
Speaker 1: get all that, but it's also concerning and as far
49:03
Speaker 1: as the bottom line deal, look, Trump has a huge advantage,
49:09
Speaker 1: a huge advantage here politically when it comes to making
49:12
Speaker 1: any sort of a piece deal, Trump can basically and
49:16
Speaker 1: this would worry me if I was Lenski, Trump can
49:18
Speaker 1: make almost any piece deal as long as the piece
49:23
Speaker 1: maintains itself, and his base is going to praise the
49:28
Speaker 1: hell out of it one because they don't care about
49:31
Speaker 1: the details. They don't understand the details. They don't really
49:35
Speaker 1: care if Putin gets things that he doesn't deserve, they
49:39
Speaker 1: don't really care if Ukraine gets screwed in the situation.
49:43
Speaker 1: They just want peace and the details don't matter. So
49:47
Speaker 1: Trump has wide latitude in doing almost anything he wants
49:53
Speaker 1: when it comes to a deal. Politically, he can sell
49:56
Speaker 1: Ukraine out as much as he wants. Frankly, to me,
50:01
Speaker 1: that's about the only way you're likely to get a
50:03
Speaker 1: deal at this point. And I only talk about things
50:07
Speaker 1: that I consider myself to be highly educated on, or
50:10
Speaker 1: maybe some sort of an expert on or have a
50:12
Speaker 1: great interest in, and the Ukraine Russia war has never
50:15
Speaker 1: been one of them. But and so I'm not going
50:18
Speaker 1: to claim that I have some great insight into what
50:21
Speaker 1: this deal is going to look like. I'm just looking
50:23
Speaker 1: at the big picture as to who has the leverage
50:26
Speaker 1: and where Trump's loyalties and self interest lies. And I
50:31
Speaker 1: don't think it bodes well for a good deal. I
50:34
Speaker 1: do think that there could be a deal because Trump
50:37
Speaker 1: is very much invested in trying to get a deal,
50:39
Speaker 1: especially since it is perceived as this summit was not
50:43
Speaker 1: a success. There was no cease fire agreement, and as
50:46
Speaker 1: of this taping, there's no sign that we're closed to
50:49
Speaker 1: a peace deal to end the Ukraine Iraq War. But obviously,
50:54
Speaker 1: you know, I hope that there is a deal. I
50:55
Speaker 1: hope it's a decent deal. I would love to see
50:57
Speaker 1: this this story go away. I'd love to see there'd
51:00
Speaker 1: be peace, people stop dying, and if Trump can do it,
51:03
Speaker 1: I'll give him credit. I mean, hey, hell, Hillary Clinton
51:06
Speaker 1: even said she would vote for him for the nominate
51:08
Speaker 1: him for the Nobel Peace Prize if he gets this done.
51:12
Speaker 1: My interpretation of that was that she doesn't think it's possible.
51:15
Speaker 1: I think I'm probably more in her camp that it's
51:17
Speaker 1: just not possible because of the circumstances surrounding the negotiation.
51:22
Speaker 1: Of course, you know, MAGA World thinks that this is
51:24
Speaker 1: an indication. It's no bag of World is so crazy,
51:28
Speaker 1: but they think that this is an indication that Hillary
51:30
Speaker 1: knows that she's legally vulnerable, so she's trying to kiss
51:33
Speaker 1: Trump's ass. I mean, it's no matter what she does
51:36
Speaker 1: or says, it doesn't matter. It's it's just amazing. I mean,
51:40
Speaker 1: just every conspiracy theory possible, Magaworld falls for every single time,
51:44
Speaker 1: and they're almost always debunked, and it doesn't matter to
51:47
Speaker 1: them when they actually get debunked. Of have a few
51:50
Speaker 1: more thoughts than that. In a second, Thanks for listening
51:53
Speaker 1: to today's free drop of the abbreviated show. If you're
51:56
Speaker 1: interested in listening to the entire show, you must become
51:59
Speaker 1: a pay Please go to Patreon. That's p A t
52:04
Speaker 1: R e O N dot com. Patreon dot com slash
52:10
Speaker 1: The Death of Journalism with John Ziggler. My name is
52:14
Speaker 1: j O H N z I E G L e R.
52:17
Speaker 1: That's Patreon dot com slash The Death of Journalism with
52:23
Speaker 1: John Ziggler. Good luck to you on that. But that's
52:27
Speaker 1: how you can subscribe.