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Mitch McConnell's Lingering Medical Mystery · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

0:02
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
0:04
Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
0:07
Speaker 2: and Jim Garritty of National Review. Free Martini's coming up.
0:13
Speaker 2: So glad you're with us for the Tuesday edition of
0:16
Speaker 2: The Three Martini Lunch and Jim. Yesterday we talked a
0:18
Speaker 2: lot about Anthony Fauci's diary and his megalomania. We've seen
0:25
Speaker 2: now other excerpts from his diary from well before the
0:28
Speaker 2: COVID drama of how you know he was a rock
0:31
Speaker 2: star and HHS was putting other people out to try
0:35
Speaker 2: and stop him from being that rock star. So he's
0:37
Speaker 2: had this ego for a very long time. Wasn't just
0:40
Speaker 2: during COVID, but man was he basking in it during COVID.
0:43
Speaker 2: But one of the other excerpts from this diary comes
0:46
Speaker 2: from August of twenty twenty one, and he's going after
0:49
Speaker 2: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Now you might remember, I think
0:52
Speaker 2: it was late April of twenty twenty that DeSantis and
0:57
Speaker 2: Georgia Governor Brian Kemp basically said it's been way for
1:00
Speaker 2: two weeks now, and we got to get back to business.
1:03
Speaker 2: So we're gonna let people open up, and we're gonna
1:05
Speaker 2: We're gonna be careful, but we're not gonna just stay
1:07
Speaker 2: in lockdown forever here. And so at that point those
1:10
Speaker 2: guys became public enemies for Anthony Fauci, but didn't stop there.
1:15
Speaker 2: This is from August twenty twenty one. Fauci says, Governor
1:18
Speaker 2: DeSantis is a complete disgrace. I won't do the whole
1:21
Speaker 2: thing like that. He is blocking the local authorities from
1:25
Speaker 2: mandating masks in various locations, including schools. He's doing this well.
1:30
Speaker 2: At the same time, Florida's virtually on fire with surging cases.
1:34
Speaker 2: Texas and Florida the ones that opened up. That's forty
1:37
Speaker 2: percent of all the cases in the country, supposedly. But
1:40
Speaker 2: then he gets into this all personal stuff, and he
1:42
Speaker 2: says at the same time, he together with his Greek
1:44
Speaker 2: chorus of Rand Paul and other GOP members of Congress,
1:48
Speaker 2: together with all the stooges at Fox News, and he
1:50
Speaker 2: specifically mentions Carlson, Hannity and Ingram continues to actively criticize
1:55
Speaker 2: me and talk virtually every day about my being wrong
1:58
Speaker 2: on everything I say, and then I should be fired.
2:01
Speaker 2: This is an obviously calculated plan of disparaging me and
2:05
Speaker 2: any other scientists, but focusing heavily on me that speak
2:08
Speaker 2: up against their crazy strategy. I'm even convinced that this
2:12
Speaker 2: is part of the total dystopia going on in certain
2:14
Speaker 2: elements of the country, and it's all linked to the
2:16
Speaker 2: big lie involving the election and the denial of January sixth.
2:21
Speaker 2: I really am worried more about the country than about myself,
2:24
Speaker 2: right since if this goes on, I fear that our
2:27
Speaker 2: democracy is in dire danger. Jim, I don't know how
2:30
Speaker 2: our democracy is in dire danger because Ron DeSantis doesn't
2:34
Speaker 2: want masking in schools when the kids aren't going to
2:37
Speaker 2: be suffering from COVID very much. I think it was
2:39
Speaker 2: pretty well established by August of twenty twenty one that
2:42
Speaker 2: that was the case. DeSantis meanwhile loving this, He says,
2:46
Speaker 2: in response to this badge of honor, proud to have
2:49
Speaker 2: blocked local governments from enforcing Fauci and edicts on their citizens. So,
2:54
Speaker 2: almost exactly five years later, Desanti's is right to take
2:57
Speaker 2: the victory lap, and Fauci looks more cold, political and
3:00
Speaker 2: calculating than ever.
3:02
Speaker 1: You know, DeSantis has earned this victory lap. A little later,
3:06
Speaker 1: probably than it is deserved. And by the way, if
3:08
Speaker 1: you had to summarize the Fauci diaries in four words,
3:12
Speaker 1: focusing heavily on me is a pretty good, good, you know,
3:16
Speaker 1: good four to select. I mean, it is his diary,
3:18
Speaker 1: so I'm not surprised that his writings focus heavily on him.
3:21
Speaker 1: But I'm thinking about this, and you know, Fauci and
3:25
Speaker 1: Ran Paul will have another confrontation on Capitol Hill this week.
3:28
Speaker 1: There'll probably be a lot of fireworks. Notice how much
3:30
Speaker 1: the coverage is going to shape it as Paul versus Fauci,
3:35
Speaker 1: as opposed to what's actually in Fauci's diary. And do
3:39
Speaker 1: what what he wrote in that diary did it contradict
3:42
Speaker 1: what he was saying at the time about there not
3:44
Speaker 1: really being any evidence for a lab leak that could
3:47
Speaker 1: have been a wet market, although he never really used
3:49
Speaker 1: those specific words. All this kind of stuff. I want
3:51
Speaker 1: to ask the mainstream media, Greg, you and I are
3:55
Speaker 1: not perfect.
3:56
Speaker 2: I don't.
3:57
Speaker 1: Off the top of my head. The only time I
3:59
Speaker 1: think we've ever had to on anything like a correction
4:01
Speaker 1: was there was a TV news report that totally botched
4:03
Speaker 1: all the facts, and we use that as a source.
4:06
Speaker 1: We didn't check what they had but said because we
4:08
Speaker 1: thought this was a reliable local station and they had
4:11
Speaker 1: completely botched everything backwards and forwards. But beyond that, I
4:15
Speaker 1: can't remember any time we've ever had to run a
4:17
Speaker 1: correction on the facts. People may not like what we say,
4:20
Speaker 1: but like, you know, you know, that's our opinions, our facts.
4:22
Speaker 1: We get them straight. I'm just thinking off the top
4:25
Speaker 1: of my head. In the last couple years, Graham Plattner
4:28
Speaker 1: is a cool guy. Biden is not se Nile Kamala
4:32
Speaker 1: is brat. It spreads joy, you know. The lab leak
4:36
Speaker 1: is a crazy conspiracy theory. Fauci is a hero, fully
4:39
Speaker 1: deserving of those prayer candles. I think of the Atlantic
4:42
Speaker 1: headlines Southern States are doing an experiment in human sacrifice
4:45
Speaker 1: in you know, by real like, dear mainstream media, do
4:49
Speaker 1: you ever get tired of being wrong? Do you every like,
4:51
Speaker 1: like really really wrong on some big stuff? Because it
4:56
Speaker 1: matters whether or not the president is seenile, it matters
5:00
Speaker 1: whether or not reopening Well, it was like barber shops
5:03
Speaker 1: and like very basic you know, stores and stuff like that.
5:06
Speaker 1: Were you going to kill lots of people by doing that?
5:09
Speaker 1: Or was that a reasonable assessment in that like people
5:11
Speaker 1: needed to have some semblance of anormal lives. You could
5:15
Speaker 1: not expect people to stay locked up in their houses
5:17
Speaker 1: for the entirety of the year. It matters where origin,
5:21
Speaker 1: where COVID nineteen came from. Graham Platner is not a
5:24
Speaker 1: really cool guy who's just beset by everybody he ever knew,
5:27
Speaker 1: making up stories about like this is big important, and
5:30
Speaker 1: you keep blanking it up over and over again, and
5:34
Speaker 1: I can't help. But like you and I, you know,
5:37
Speaker 1: in a whole bunch of conservative media, not all there
5:39
Speaker 1: are mounds of screw up out there by and large,
5:41
Speaker 1: Like I think, these problems come when you get into
5:44
Speaker 1: a mode of hero worship. Right, Fauci has to be
5:48
Speaker 1: the good hero in contrast to Trump. By the way,
5:51
Speaker 1: when the right screws up, it's probably because I get
5:53
Speaker 1: into hero worship of Trump. But like you know, Graham Platner,
5:56
Speaker 1: the flavor of the month who just came out of nowhere.
5:58
Speaker 1: Joe Biden has to be good enough to perform another
6:01
Speaker 1: four years. Kabala has to spread like the use of
6:04
Speaker 1: They kind of like they have to believe something, so
6:07
Speaker 1: they convince themselves of something and they ignore all the
6:09
Speaker 1: counter evidence, and they lead the public far down onto
6:13
Speaker 1: a branch, and then that branch falls off. This is
6:16
Speaker 1: almost like I'm talking about one of our sponsors and
6:18
Speaker 1: how they can protect your house, you know, leading down
6:20
Speaker 1: the road. But like that's just like, don't you every
6:22
Speaker 1: guys get tired of this happening? Don't you everyone like
6:25
Speaker 1: just maybe stop, take a breath and ask yourself, Hey,
6:28
Speaker 1: you know, is it possible Fauci's wrong on this? Is
6:30
Speaker 1: it possible Fauci is not, you know, coming down from
6:34
Speaker 1: Mount Sinai with two stone tablets of how to avoidp
6:37
Speaker 1: you know, spreading the contagious virus, and so it's just
6:40
Speaker 1: as yeah, we'll see what happens. I don't think, you know, Fauci,
6:43
Speaker 1: But I just got this all purpose pardon from from
6:45
Speaker 1: Joe Biden that you know, is gonna make it really
6:47
Speaker 1: tough to hold him accountable for anything he did back then.
6:50
Speaker 1: But it's just an utterly you know, congratulations to DeSantis
6:54
Speaker 1: for you know, managing to not kill every Remember that
6:56
Speaker 1: guy dressed up as the Grim Reaper because it was
6:58
Speaker 1: dangerous to go to the beach outside.
7:01
Speaker 2: You know, No, no, Fauci mislied he lied at least
7:04
Speaker 2: once about mass First he said we didn't need him,
7:06
Speaker 2: and then he said we did, and then they had to
7:07
Speaker 2: be mandated all over the place. He was wrong about
7:10
Speaker 2: natural immunity. He was wrong about a lot of different things.
7:13
Speaker 2: Here two things, and I think you kind of alluded
7:15
Speaker 2: to this that tipped me off as to Fauci fairly
7:18
Speaker 2: early on Number one, the media, like you said, basically
7:21
Speaker 2: treating him like the oracle. You can't criticize him anytime
7:25
Speaker 2: there's someone you can't criticize. That just doesn't rub me right.
7:28
Speaker 2: And then, of course, once the George Floyd protests started
7:31
Speaker 2: happening shortly after Memorial Day, you know, and he had said, no,
7:34
Speaker 2: you can't go to these reopen the society rallies.
7:38
Speaker 1: Couldn't go to church, couldn't go to relatives in the hospital,
7:41
Speaker 1: couldn't you know.
7:43
Speaker 2: Ten people per funeral or whatever it was. And then
7:45
Speaker 2: you know, one hundred thousand people or whatever want to
7:47
Speaker 2: rally in the streets and he's like, just be careful.
7:50
Speaker 2: That was the final moment where we knew this was
7:52
Speaker 2: a becoming a very political situation. What do you make
7:55
Speaker 2: of the media, folks here, some of these excerpts. You know,
7:58
Speaker 2: Jake Tapper whining and dine him and then kind of
8:00
Speaker 2: doing his talking points on the air. There's one story
8:03
Speaker 2: about Dana Bash exchanging a very crude joke about Jim
8:07
Speaker 2: Jordan with with Tony Fauci. Haven't heard a lot from
8:10
Speaker 2: these people over the last forty eight hours. What's your
8:12
Speaker 2: take on them?
8:13
Speaker 1: Well, I can't wait till we have the next Jake
8:15
Speaker 1: Tapper book, the original original Sin or the even earlier
8:19
Speaker 1: original Sin. How could we possibly have botched this? By
8:22
Speaker 1: the way, when you know it says Fauci and Tapper
8:24
Speaker 1: dined at the house, how big was that table? Were
8:27
Speaker 1: they six feet apart? Because my suspicion is not unless
8:30
Speaker 1: it's like the Bruce Wayne Vicky Vale table in Batman
8:34
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty nine, just where they're on opposite ends of
8:37
Speaker 1: these really long unless it's that they were not socially distanced.
8:40
Speaker 1: I mean, now, the good news is they weren't out
8:42
Speaker 1: at the French laundry like Gavin Newsom, but like it
8:46
Speaker 1: was so clear that like all of these you know,
8:48
Speaker 1: people who were you know, elite or well off. Really look, look,
8:53
Speaker 1: the social distancing is for the peons. It's for the peasants.
8:56
Speaker 1: I know I'm protected from this because I have you know,
8:59
Speaker 1: great wealth, power and status. Remember like the first baseball game,
9:04
Speaker 1: I want to say it was Nationals Yankees, it was
9:06
Speaker 1: National Is, one of the New York teams, and Fauci
9:08
Speaker 1: was the only spectator allowed in.
9:10
Speaker 2: I throughout the first pitch and he was like twenty
9:12
Speaker 2: feet off.
9:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, he pitches bad messages. He doesn't pitch baseballs. The
9:16
Speaker 1: second thing is that I remember, like you know, Deblasio
9:19
Speaker 1: and his wife were the only ones who are allowed
9:21
Speaker 1: to be in Times Square, And it was just like,
9:24
Speaker 1: could you be more? We are the special elite elected class.
9:29
Speaker 1: We are special. We're the aristocracy. We get rights that
9:32
Speaker 1: upions don't get. And like, gee, why did that build up?
9:35
Speaker 1: Why is there populist anger in this country? Why are
9:38
Speaker 1: people distrustful of the elites? How could this happen out
9:41
Speaker 1: of the blue with no particular reason for you just
9:44
Speaker 1: it's infuriating.
9:45
Speaker 2: You might remember this, Jim, if you went to a
9:47
Speaker 2: restaurant back then, you had to wear the mask entering
9:51
Speaker 2: and get into your table, but then and then also
9:53
Speaker 2: leaving the restaurant. But there's this magical force field that
9:56
Speaker 2: was around your table and as soon as you sat down,
9:58
Speaker 2: you could take it off and you'd be perfect fine
10:00
Speaker 2: until it was time.
10:01
Speaker 1: To LEA virus is repelled by chewing.
10:03
Speaker 2: Oh the things they told us unbelievable. A lot of
10:07
Speaker 2: business is hurt during the lockdown, no doubt about it.
10:10
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10:13
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Speaker 2: No missed calls, no missed customers. All right, Jim, Well,
11:26
Speaker 2: yesterday we talked about the problem the Democrats have and
11:28
Speaker 2: emerging civil war potentially as the socialists certainly gain more
11:32
Speaker 2: attention and in some cases win the race. But Republicans,
11:37
Speaker 2: of course, have their own challenges here in this midterm cycle.
11:40
Speaker 2: Some of them are just built in the party of
11:42
Speaker 2: the President usually is kind of on the defensive, and
11:45
Speaker 2: the odds are not necessarily greatly in their favor. But
11:48
Speaker 2: then there's also a voter enthusiasm in The Washington Post
11:51
Speaker 2: is reporting on this, and they're getting their information from
11:54
Speaker 2: folks connected to Americans for Prosperity, So it's not some
11:57
Speaker 2: left wing outfit trying to drive down enthusiasm here. But
12:03
Speaker 2: it says that in reliably read Iowa, where open governor
12:06
Speaker 2: and Senate races look surprisingly competitive. AFP action door knocking
12:10
Speaker 2: in suburban Des Moines found voters critical of the Iran
12:13
Speaker 2: war and high inflation. Some even say they'll back Democrats
12:17
Speaker 2: this fall AFP actions Nathan Nassimento says, quote about one
12:22
Speaker 2: in five reliable Republican base voters are at risk in November,
12:27
Speaker 2: meaning they may stay home or vote the other way.
12:30
Speaker 2: Across Iowa, Ohio, North Carolina, Montana, New Hampshire, and Michigan,
12:35
Speaker 2: top concern inflation and the economy. Quote this is a
12:37
Speaker 2: big chunk. This is a scary number. Reaching them at
12:41
Speaker 2: the door usually moves them towards GOP candidates or at
12:43
Speaker 2: least away from Democrats towards undecided. And that twenty percent
12:47
Speaker 2: doesn't even include low propensity Trump voters who turn out
12:50
Speaker 2: for him but often skip the midterms signals. Mitchell Brown
12:53
Speaker 2: says that Democrats are as fired up as they were
12:55
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen when they flip the House, and the
12:58
Speaker 2: GOP is lagging. Young Men under forty, who were key
13:01
Speaker 2: to Trump's twenty twenty four win, are most at risk
13:05
Speaker 2: over the economy and prices. So, Jim, we've been saying
13:08
Speaker 2: for a while now, if we want to see things
13:10
Speaker 2: trending in the right direction on inflation and the price
13:13
Speaker 2: of gas, price of groceries and all those things. You
13:15
Speaker 2: kind of want that in place by Labor Day. That's
13:17
Speaker 2: a little over a month away right now, and so
13:20
Speaker 2: there's not a lot of time for that to happen,
13:21
Speaker 2: which means things are fairly baked in economically, and if
13:26
Speaker 2: that's a driving issue, that's not good for the party
13:29
Speaker 2: in power, and that's where the Republicans are right now.
13:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, first of all, it was not really well noticed.
13:34
Speaker 1: But the President also another group of tariffs last week,
13:38
Speaker 1: and that's you know, basically one group of tariffs was expiring,
13:41
Speaker 1: and he basically said, we're going to do with the
13:42
Speaker 1: same kind of similar tariffs, different justification, same countries. About
13:47
Speaker 1: sixty countries, ninety if they say sixty countries, but that
13:50
Speaker 1: counts of the European Union as one, So if you
13:52
Speaker 1: kindle the European Union separately, it's about ninety countries. Look,
13:55
Speaker 1: every poll has the voter saying we're worried about the economy,
13:58
Speaker 1: We're worried about inflation, worried about the cost of living.
14:01
Speaker 1: The President does every now and then talk about this.
14:04
Speaker 1: He did an event at GM yesterday. But by and large,
14:06
Speaker 1: you look at his true social posts, you look at
14:08
Speaker 1: the questions he answers during press conferences, you look at
14:11
Speaker 1: his off the cuff remarks. President Trump generally only talks
14:15
Speaker 1: about the economy when his staff requires him to, when
14:18
Speaker 1: the event is specifically about that. He's really interested in
14:21
Speaker 1: the reflecting pool, He's really interested the ballroom. He's really
14:24
Speaker 1: interested in all kinds of stuff that is just kind
14:28
Speaker 1: of extraneous to the concerns of the average American. Right now,
14:31
Speaker 1: today's morning, Joe's love about the terroiffs. And I say, look, Republicans,
14:34
Speaker 1: you could have been running for reelection in a roaring economy,
14:37
Speaker 1: but a president addicted to tariffs wouldn't let you. Stock
14:41
Speaker 1: Mark is still doing pretty well. Unemployment is low by
14:43
Speaker 1: historical standards. But he asked people, how do you feel
14:45
Speaker 1: about the economy? They generally say, really lousy. And here's
14:48
Speaker 1: the thing that really should worry Republicans. Pure research survey forget. Look,
14:52
Speaker 1: we know democrats are never going to like what the
14:54
Speaker 1: president's doing. We know independents are usually going to be
14:57
Speaker 1: split around fifty to fifty. President's numbers are really lousy.
15:00
Speaker 1: Amongst those quote, the share of Republicans who say that
15:03
Speaker 1: Trump's policies have worsened conditions the economy has arisen from
15:07
Speaker 1: eighteen percent to twenty eight percent, that's almost three out
15:10
Speaker 1: of ten. The share that says they have improved conditions
15:12
Speaker 1: has fallen from fifty seven percent to forty two percent,
15:16
Speaker 1: meaning less than half Republicans think Trump policies have improved
15:20
Speaker 1: the economy. Now, some of this is the Iran war
15:22
Speaker 1: and gas prices. I'm not going to you know, like
15:24
Speaker 1: that's a separate factor from all this stuff. But like
15:27
Speaker 1: if we had a parliamentary system, there might be a
15:29
Speaker 1: vote of no confidence. Trump has a four year term.
15:33
Speaker 1: It's a very good chance he's going to have a
15:34
Speaker 1: democratic house. We'll see, i think, shake out of the Senate.
15:36
Speaker 1: But like, you know, the first thing you have to
15:38
Speaker 1: do is really focus on what the president what the
15:40
Speaker 1: voters care about. And the president isn't all that focused
15:43
Speaker 1: on it. And every couple of days we say we're
15:44
Speaker 1: going to bomber ran and every couple of days we
15:46
Speaker 1: say they've said they want to talk, we're going to
15:48
Speaker 1: do more negotiations. Just seems like we're going around in circles.
15:52
Speaker 1: It's are we surprised? Republicans feel kind of met about this.
15:55
Speaker 1: I mean, like the other thing is the philosophy of
15:57
Speaker 1: this Trump administration is that I the president. It can
16:00
Speaker 1: do what I want. I can do through executive orders.
16:02
Speaker 1: I can do this myself. I don't need acts of Congress. Well,
16:05
Speaker 1: if you don't need a Republican House and Senate, why
16:07
Speaker 1: should you reelect it? Why should you What is the
16:10
Speaker 1: point of this? This is the imperial presidency on steroids,
16:13
Speaker 1: which is really not good news for incumbent congressional Republicans
16:16
Speaker 1: who are running for reelection. And let's remember there's been
16:19
Speaker 1: a record number of retirements this year. So, like you know,
16:22
Speaker 1: there are so many ways this administration could at least
16:24
Speaker 1: improve the odds in its favor, and it just doesn't
16:27
Speaker 1: want to do it. And it's utterly infuriating. Yeah, there's
16:30
Speaker 1: still some time, but like again, you're right, the perception
16:33
Speaker 1: of the economy that cement is hardening fast, you know,
16:35
Speaker 1: faster and faster each day. I am not the least
16:38
Speaker 1: bit surprised. And also this point on Americans of prosperity,
16:40
Speaker 1: they've been doing this a long time. If they're sounding
16:42
Speaker 1: the alarm. Republicans should be listening.
16:44
Speaker 2: One other note about Iowa. It's easy to forget that
16:47
Speaker 2: Iowa was either a swing state or a reliably blue state,
16:50
Speaker 2: at least in presidential elections for a long time. In fact, oh,
16:53
Speaker 2: George W. Bush, it was automatic, you know, like this
16:56
Speaker 2: is the market was automatic. But to was Chuck Grassley.
16:58
Speaker 2: They've had a lot of Republican ovenors over the past
17:01
Speaker 2: couple of generations. But yeah, after Reagan and eighty four,
17:05
Speaker 2: Bush won at once out of his two elections, George W. Bush,
17:08
Speaker 2: not Bush the elder, even Ducaucus one Iowa. You got
17:13
Speaker 2: to give him a reason to show up. And so Republicans,
17:15
Speaker 2: that's your goal now here for the next three months,
17:17
Speaker 2: and not much more than that. So get to it. Jim,
17:20
Speaker 2: you mentioned this a little bit earlier, but it's time
17:22
Speaker 2: to protect that home. And it's not only making sure
17:25
Speaker 2: that your home's in good shape. It's making sure that
17:27
Speaker 2: if something does go wrong, it doesn't absolutely break the bank.
17:31
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17:34
Speaker 2: water line, something else, you know those things, you never
17:38
Speaker 2: know when those are going to happen. They don't send
17:39
Speaker 2: you an alert. Hey, your sewer line's going to blow
17:42
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17:44
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17:47
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17:50
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17:53
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17:56
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17:59
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18:01
Speaker 1: I was going to say there's never a good time
18:03
Speaker 1: for a messive home repair bill, but there are definitely.
18:05
Speaker 1: There's only bad and worse, and it always seems to
18:08
Speaker 1: arrive at a time that feels like the worst. And remember,
18:11
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18:13
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18:16
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18:20
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18:27
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18:30
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18:31
Speaker 2: We didn't have this, and the neighbor up the street
18:33
Speaker 2: had one of those lines break and They were cool
18:36
Speaker 2: as could be because they had this coverage, and missus
18:39
Speaker 2: Karremison and I were like, I think that's worth it.
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19:01
Speaker 2: void in Florida. Well, Jimmy mentioned some vacancies on the
19:10
Speaker 2: congressional level, and some people are wondering if there needs
19:13
Speaker 2: to be a vacancy. And one of Kentucky's Senate seats,
19:16
Speaker 2: Mitch McConnell, has been in the hospital or rehab center
19:19
Speaker 2: now since June fourteenth. We've seen now I think three
19:23
Speaker 2: pictures of him with his wife Eylane Chow and a
19:26
Speaker 2: statement coming with it. We have seen nothing in terms
19:30
Speaker 2: of audio or video. Yesterday the picture was accompanied by
19:34
Speaker 2: a statement of him saying, I'm still working hard to
19:36
Speaker 2: get back to my full schedule of work in the
19:37
Speaker 2: Senate and in Kentucky keeping up with intense physical therapy
19:41
Speaker 2: from my doctor's orders. But unfortunately, I'm not going to
19:43
Speaker 2: be able to make it to Fancy Farm, Kentucky this Saturday.
19:46
Speaker 2: If you're not familiar with Fancy Farm, that's where the
19:48
Speaker 2: Kentucky politicians show up at this huge picnic and just
19:52
Speaker 2: absolutely destroy each other verbally. It's one of the most
19:55
Speaker 2: vicious political events you'll ever see. My good friend, my
20:00
Speaker 2: lawyer friend, Ryan Kentucky told me all about Fancy Farm
20:03
Speaker 2: a long time ago, and so he's not going to
20:05
Speaker 2: make it there. And so then there's also this statement
20:08
Speaker 2: from the office of the attending Physician saying that he's
20:11
Speaker 2: out of the hospital, but he's got to stay in rehab.
20:13
Speaker 2: He can't medically leave rehab and return to office yet. Meanwhile,
20:17
Speaker 2: of course, the new Kentucky law says that if somebody
20:21
Speaker 2: resigns or dies or whatever by August third, there's a
20:24
Speaker 2: special election before the November election. And so some people
20:28
Speaker 2: think that the team McConnell is just trying to get
20:30
Speaker 2: to that point. So there is no special election that
20:33
Speaker 2: could potentially be won by a Democrat, or somehow Thomas
20:36
Speaker 2: Massey could mess it up or something like that. But
20:39
Speaker 2: Andy Basheer is the governor of Kentucky. He's a Democrat,
20:41
Speaker 2: he's got twenty twenty eight ambitions, and he's been frustrated
20:44
Speaker 2: by the lack of information about McConnell's condition. He sends
20:49
Speaker 2: a letter in response to what McConnell said yesterday, saying, quote,
20:53
Speaker 2: even the attending physician's written statement does not discuss your
20:56
Speaker 2: actual condition, including whether you can speak, reason or carry
20:59
Speaker 2: out your duties as a senator. I understand anyone's desire
21:03
Speaker 2: for privacy, but when you run for office and service
21:05
Speaker 2: one of the states to US senators, you willingly abdicate
21:08
Speaker 2: much of your personal privacy. Jim, I am not an
21:11
Speaker 2: Andy Basheer fan, but I think he does have a
21:14
Speaker 2: point here. The question is whether Mitch mcconnald's still capable
21:18
Speaker 2: of doing this job. His statements hint that he will
21:21
Speaker 2: be soon, But I think the lack of information over
21:25
Speaker 2: the past month and a half here has been pretty appalling.
21:27
Speaker 1: First of all, Greg, note that one of the photos
21:30
Speaker 1: of McConnell had that day's newspaper in it, so almost
21:33
Speaker 1: like it was a proof of life from a hostage tape.
21:35
Speaker 1: You know that this is when this was taped. It
21:37
Speaker 1: couldn't have been taped any earlier than this. I would
21:40
Speaker 1: love to knock around Andy Basheer and say he's being unreasonable.
21:44
Speaker 1: And the one part where I think he is being
21:46
Speaker 1: unreasonable is he says, in order for Mitch McConnell to,
21:50
Speaker 1: you know, continue being a US senator, he demands proof
21:53
Speaker 1: of mental competence. Greg, we need one hundred senators. And
21:58
Speaker 1: if you institute this test mental competence, how are they
22:02
Speaker 1: how are they supposed to have a quorum? I vote?
22:04
Speaker 1: You know, so if you're good to put McConnell, everybody's
22:08
Speaker 1: got to take one of them. And like, I'm not
22:09
Speaker 1: feeling good about Masie Herono, right, it's just you.
22:11
Speaker 2: Know, Sheldon Whitehouse. Yeah, yeah, so that.
22:15
Speaker 1: Joke aside, unfortunately, but she was kind of reasonable here,
22:19
Speaker 1: and I'm glad we're getting these photos and these issued statements.
22:23
Speaker 1: The fact that we haven't seen video or audio of
22:26
Speaker 1: the senator, you can only conclude that there's like there's
22:29
Speaker 1: a reason we're not seeing it. I don't know whether
22:31
Speaker 1: it's he can't speak. I don't know whether he's got
22:34
Speaker 1: a tremor or something. I don't know whether he's mentally
22:38
Speaker 1: still recovering, and his thoughts are jumping around. You know,
22:41
Speaker 1: we just assumed that if he looked good on camera,
22:44
Speaker 1: we would have seen in him by now on camera.
22:47
Speaker 1: At some point we need a video, at some point
22:48
Speaker 1: we need to see it. Here if I was doing
22:50
Speaker 1: and if he's doing at a level where you can function, great, wonderful.
22:53
Speaker 1: I mean, like all these statements that are issued could
22:55
Speaker 1: be written by somebody else. All we know is that
22:57
Speaker 1: he's in the picture. He's smiling. Elaine Chow was with them,
23:01
Speaker 1: and I'm glad, you know, like I'd prefer that to
23:03
Speaker 1: not seeing anything. But really, this has now been, as
23:07
Speaker 1: you said, six weeks. This is a long time to
23:09
Speaker 1: be away from that. We know this was, you know,
23:12
Speaker 1: a fall. This is you can't delay forever. The fact
23:16
Speaker 1: that Andy Basheer is undoubtedly trying to position himself for
23:20
Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight just because he's a Democrat doesn't mean
23:22
Speaker 1: these are not reasonable requests and points. And I think
23:26
Speaker 1: that at some point I don't think he has I'd
23:29
Speaker 1: be interesting to see if he had declared, if he
23:30
Speaker 1: had authority to declare a special election without McConnell resigning.
23:33
Speaker 1: I think the courts would swat that away pretty quickly.
23:37
Speaker 1: But I think at some point McConnell could make a
23:39
Speaker 1: lot of these issues go away with a short video
23:42
Speaker 1: statement and the fact that we don't see that, we
23:44
Speaker 1: can only draw negative conclusions from that.
23:46
Speaker 2: I've wondered if he's going to try that before August third,
23:49
Speaker 2: if he doesn't get what he wants here, But that
23:50
Speaker 2: would lead to a serious fight and potentially a major
23:53
Speaker 2: embarrassment for him, which would not be good for his
23:55
Speaker 2: twenty twenty eight ambitions. So I'm not sure he'll do that.
23:58
Speaker 2: But Jim, remember that first statement was that I didn't
24:01
Speaker 2: have a concussion. I fell, but I didn't have a concussion.
24:04
Speaker 2: I don't think there was anything about broken bones, didn't
24:06
Speaker 2: have a heart attack, didn't have a stroke. So why
24:11
Speaker 2: six weeks in the hospital if none of those things
24:14
Speaker 2: actually happened supposedly, I don't know.
24:16
Speaker 1: You know again, more information is better than you know. Sooner,
24:19
Speaker 1: way back when the first allegations came out that Bill
24:23
Speaker 1: Clinton may have had some sort of inappropriate relationship with
24:26
Speaker 1: a intern, Mike McCurry was probably one of my favorite
24:29
Speaker 1: Democratic White House Press secretaries because he always had this
24:32
Speaker 1: like sense of humor about the ridiculousness of what he
24:35
Speaker 1: was saying. So at some point he said, look, we're
24:36
Speaker 1: going to try to give you more information rather than less,
24:39
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later. And nothing came for months and months,
24:43
Speaker 1: you know. But it's one of those things where like
24:45
Speaker 1: McConnell team, you got to put more stuff out this.
24:48
Speaker 1: This is really starting to.
24:49
Speaker 2: Look bad, no doubt about it. Well, if you're going
24:53
Speaker 2: to get your picture taken and put it up on
24:55
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Speaker 2: sent you. All right, Jim got a couple of scrambles
26:27
Speaker 2: for Senate races this year Because of Graham Platner, the
26:30
Speaker 2: main Democrats had to pick a new nominee, and they
26:33
Speaker 2: picked Troy Jackson State Senate President who had just lost
26:38
Speaker 2: the Democratic primary for governor at the beginning of June,
26:41
Speaker 2: and so that is leading to a problem potentially, because
26:47
Speaker 2: Maine has a law that says, quote, and this is
26:50
Speaker 2: Title twenty one A, Section three thirty one if you're
26:53
Speaker 2: really into Maine election law provides that quote, a person
26:57
Speaker 2: may not file, whether by primary election or nomination petition,
27:01
Speaker 2: as a candidate for more than one federal, state, or
27:04
Speaker 2: county office at any election. Also Section three point fifty one,
27:08
Speaker 2: which contains similar restrictions, and Section three sixty three, which
27:11
Speaker 2: provides that a political committee filling a vacancy quote shall
27:15
Speaker 2: choose a qualified person to fill the vacancy unquote. So
27:18
Speaker 2: the question is whether Troy Jackson is qualified. Now, there
27:23
Speaker 2: is a Republican state representative named James White who is
27:26
Speaker 2: petitioning the Secretary of State woman named Shanna Bellows, who
27:30
Speaker 2: also wanted to be this nominee and didn't get it.
27:32
Speaker 2: She's also one of the two secretaries of state that
27:35
Speaker 2: tried to keep Trump off the ballot in twenty twenty four.
27:38
Speaker 2: So you know, she's a real straight shooter. But he's
27:40
Speaker 2: asking and saying, you know, sore loser, laws man, looks
27:44
Speaker 2: like this guy is ineligible. But since there's not a
27:47
Speaker 2: direct sore loser law, especially as it relates to an
27:50
Speaker 2: emergency filling of the nomination, my guess is that this
27:54
Speaker 2: probably isn't going to work, but it certainly is interesting.
27:57
Speaker 1: It is, And look, lawmakers can't be expected to predict
28:00
Speaker 1: every potential scenario, so nearly clearly in the statute it
28:03
Speaker 1: does not say if the nominee turns out to be
28:06
Speaker 1: a Nazi rapist and is forced to resign, one of
28:10
Speaker 1: the other candidates who pursued this nomination is permitted to
28:13
Speaker 1: be the party selection for the replacement there. Look, I
28:17
Speaker 1: doubt this is going to be a real problem for
28:19
Speaker 1: Troy Jackson. I do think the biggest problem for Troy
28:21
Speaker 1: Jackson is going to be when the Senate campaign of
28:24
Speaker 1: Susan Collins rolls up a giant wooden horse to his
28:27
Speaker 1: campaign headquarters. That's the second Odyssey Troy joke of the week.
28:33
Speaker 1: Very proud of myself for that one.
28:34
Speaker 2: Ah, you should be, you should be. Yeah, this probably
28:37
Speaker 2: isn't going to work.
28:38
Speaker 1: By Troy. You know this, you know it was you know,
28:41
Speaker 1: I think it was Axiosur one of them had the
28:44
Speaker 1: Republican plan to sack Troy, and I was like, headline,
28:47
Speaker 1: I wish I'd come up with. That's almost New York Post.
28:50
Speaker 2: Worthy, very very good. Now I like it. I like that.
28:53
Speaker 2: I like that joke. I think you and I are
28:55
Speaker 2: so jaded from two thousand and two and with the
28:58
Speaker 2: New Jersey. Yes, I mean everything they did was completely illegal,
29:03
Speaker 2: but the State Supreme Court was a bunch of lefties,
29:05
Speaker 2: so like, yeah, sure, go ahead, put Frank Lautenberg in there,
29:07
Speaker 2: even though it's way past the deadline, just because your
29:09
Speaker 2: guys gonna lose, Sure, go ahead and swap him out.
29:12
Speaker 2: So anything after that, you're just like, yeah, I'll probably
29:14
Speaker 2: get away with it, you know.
29:15
Speaker 1: Like and by the way, like the sore loser law
29:18
Speaker 1: is you know, designed so that you lose a primary
29:21
Speaker 1: and then you say, well, I'm going to do an
29:22
Speaker 1: independent bid, or I'm going to do a right end bid,
29:24
Speaker 1: you know something where you have you know, been rejected
29:27
Speaker 1: by your party and you don't get a second bite
29:30
Speaker 1: at the apple just because you're upset that you think
29:32
Speaker 1: you should have been the nominee. This is pretty different circumstances.
29:35
Speaker 1: Graham Plattner is thoroughly disqualified morally, ethically, legally on a
29:40
Speaker 1: whole bunch of different levels. So like, it's not like
29:43
Speaker 1: Troy Jackson trying to run against Graham Plattner to you know,
29:47
Speaker 1: tank his bid or something like that. So I doubt
29:50
Speaker 1: this is going to be much of an issue, but
29:51
Speaker 1: it's kind of fun.
29:52
Speaker 2: It is, all right, well, Jim, Happy Tuesday, See tomorrow,
29:55
Speaker 2: See Tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty National Review. I'm Greg Carumbus
29:58
Speaker 2: of Radio America. Thanks so much for being with us today.
30:00
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30:02
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30:05
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30:07
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30:21
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