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ActBlue’s Alleged Foreign Donations Exposed · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Karambas of Radio America
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: and Jim Garrity of National Review.
• 0:10
  Speaker 3: Three martinis coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 4: So glad you're with us for the Friday edition of
• 0:16
  Speaker 4: the Three Martini Lunch. Yes, we've made it to Friday.
• 0:18
  Speaker 4: I think we're all happy about that. That's a good martini, Jim.
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: One thing we know Republicans have going for them this
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: election cycle is they have a lot more money than Democrats,
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: which is good for them because there's a lot of
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: things that they don't have going for them this cycle.
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: And we'll talk about that a little bit more today.
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: are getting seems to be a little suspicious too. A
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: new report from the House Judiciary Committee has just dropped,
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: and there are screenshots on townhall.com about this. And according
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: to townhall.com, they show staff knowingly waving through foreign donations
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: using verification methods that are very shady. Whole thread at townhall.com there.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: It says, ActBlue told Congress its passport verification stops foreign
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: donors from but their own policy says otherwise, that it
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: only checks that the number has the right number of characters.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: No database check, no real verification ever. Here's the actual
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: statement in the text thread. We use some very basic validation,
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: number of characters, to ensure that the number entered is
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: a valid passport number, but we do not verify the
• 1:22
  Speaker 4: information in any other way. We do not, for instance,
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: check the information provided against a government database. We merely
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: store the information and continue with the contribution flow. So
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: what actually gets a foreign donation approved at ActBlue? A
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: supervisor's own words, quote, the donor is foreign but correctly
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: entered their billing address. Approved. Another one. Donor sometimes has
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: an IP in Hong Kong, but none of their other
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: signals raise any eyebrows.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Approved.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Here's one that should end the debate. They say a
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: donor's information pointed entirely to Canada. ActBlue, though, approved it
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: anyway because, and this is a real quote, Twitter seems
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: to confirm that they are a real person. And so
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: it goes on to say it happened more than once.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Another foreign flag donor got waved through because they had
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: a LinkedIn account. Social media profiles now count as campaign
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: finance law compliance. And when their own legal counsel tried
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: to flag this, they kept deleting his requests from the
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: thread and just basically ignored him. So, Jim, it's Democrats. So,
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: you know, who knows if they're ever going to. face
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: any consequences for this. I know Jim Jordan and others
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: have tried to dig into ActBlue a lot up on
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: Capitol Hill, and that's where this report is coming from.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: So we'll see if there are any consequences, but it's
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: good to know just how brazen this is, even if
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: it is horrible.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I was going to say this is good work by
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the Congress, the legislative branch. Hey, executive branch, what you doing?
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Anybody at the Department of Justice want to investigate this
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: sort of thing? Seems like a pretty good one. So
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I remember hearing about similar allegations about foreign donations being accepted, Greg,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: during the Obama 2008 campaign, which, you know, listeners with
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: long memories, that was so long ago, Greg, it predates
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: our podcast. So the Obama 2008 campaign was, you know,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: breaking all kinds of campaign records for campaign fundraisers. And
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: no doubt there was a lot of genuine enthusiasm for
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Obama back in the period leading up to the 2008
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: presidential election. But did that mean that everything coming in,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: the gobs and gobs of money, that all of it
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: was coming from legitimate sources? And there were always lingering
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: questions about was there enough verification, as you're seeing in
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: these anecdotes of Act Blue there. So one of the
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: things that jumps out at me, Greg, now people know
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: that I go to a lot of different places, usually
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: on reporting trips, and they're not the most scenic countries
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: you could possibly go to. I don't donate to presidential
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: campaigns or political campaigns at all, in part out of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: a principle that people question my objectivity, Greg, and also
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: because I'm really cheap, and I don't want to. So
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: stop spamming me, and stop spamming Doris and Donna as well,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: for long-time listeners sketching that in-joke. Okay, would you travel
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: abroad to, say, Hong Kong, and then choose to donate
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: to a political campaign? It seems like odd timing. You
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: figure you'd just wait until you come home. Oh, I'm
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: viewing the Taj Mahal in India, and I just had
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: this urge to donate to AOC or some other Democrat
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: or something like that. Secondly, when you do this traveling abroad, Greg,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: can you go to the security line and say, look,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: I don't have my passport, I don't have my ID,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: but Twitter seems to confirm that I am a real person.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Is that sufficient identification?
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: No?
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Okay. Then why is it okay for political donations? Because
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: we're supposed to... I could hear the typical low information
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Democrats saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Foreign donations to Democratic
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: campaigns is a proud tradition going back to Johnny Chung
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: and the donations in Al Gore's fundraising at the Buddhist
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: temple back in the 1996 campaign. So there might be, oh,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: it's totally normal for foreign campaigns to donate to Democratic campaigns. No, no,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: it's not. It's against the law. And there have long
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: been suspicions about that. There was also some earlier report
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: where like a guy in a trailer had donated like $ 90, 000
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: to a variety of Democratic campaigns and they'd all been
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: automated and they'd all been in a certain, it all
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: looked like somebody basically used this guy's name and ID,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: wasn't using his own money because the guy didn't have
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the money to funnel massive amounts of money to particular campaigns. Shockingly,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the Democrats, entirely possible that this is happening on the
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Republican side too, Greg, but I would point out My
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: sense is based on what I've and I'm writing about,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: you know, grift in conservative, sorry, conservative air quotes for
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: those who are only getting the audio version organizations for
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: a long time. It's always Americans for a better America.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: But in those cases, what they do is they collect
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the donations and then they don't spend them on the
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: Republican candidates. And I don't know about you, Greg. I
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: think of amongst the right of center grifters. There's an
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: honesty there. It's honest script. They're keeping the money for themselves.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: They're not passing it along to help their candidates. And
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: this is a real legitimate disadvantage to Republicans. I'm saying
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that only half tongue in cheek because ActBlue clearly sends
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: along a significant portion of that donation onto the actual
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Democratic campaigns. Absolutely right.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: And so again, like you said, the Justice Department should
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: be on this. A lot of people related to ActBlue
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: have refused to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, which
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: doesn't necessarily mean they've committed crimes, but it certainly doesn't
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: look good, as we saw with Anthony Fauci and so forth.
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: But you mentioned the Clinton fundraising scandal. And I remember
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: when the investigation of that was going to make Fred
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: Thompson the leading presidential candidate in the year 2000, as
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: he was chairing that investigation on the Senate side. But then,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: you know, he had Johnny Chung and John Wong and
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: Gal Gort, the Buddhist temple. And Americans were like, oh,
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: this is like whitewater. This is complicated. We need something simple.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: And then, you know, oh, Clinton and the intern. Oh, wow.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: You know, then we can understand that scandal. But everybody's
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: glazed over at Chinese fundraising, which should have been a
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: massive scandal. But in the end, they got away with it.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Way back in the day, Greg, I was the public
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: relations employee of the Capitol Steps, a musical comedy troupe.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: And they did a song about Johnny Chung. And the
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: name of it was, give you a sense of how
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: comedy and political correctness standards have changed, Greg. To the
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: tune of Secret Agent Man. That tune from the early 60s.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Secret Asian Man. And unsurprisingly, it's a whole different world
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: back then, kids. You could make fun of all kinds
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of things. But on the one hand, I want to
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: say fond memories. They fired me. I was really bad
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: at my job. But I also want to point out
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that there was this sense that like, you know, the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Chinese government's funding a presidential campaign. Oh boy, that incorrigible
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Bill Clinton.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they got one song out of that scandal. That's
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: live box.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: I think they got two or three albums out of
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: the Lewinsky scandal. So yeah, those were the glory days.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: In any event, will there be consequences? I'm not holding
• 8:05
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• 8:07
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• 9:36
  Speaker 4: All right, Jim, Hassan Piker is still in the news.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: Abdul El-Sayed keeps getting asked about this all the time,
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: and his response is always the same. It's like, why
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: are we talking about a Twitch streamer from California and
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: what he said? And the answer is, well, because you
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: invited him onto the campaign trail numerous times and were
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: joined at the hip with him. We've all seen the
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: picture of you guys bumping fists there at one of
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: the campaign events. And he said some horrible things. including
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: America deserved 9-11 and things like that. And so Abdul
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: El-Sayed refuses to distance himself. And let's face it, if
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: he did, we'd still call him out on it for
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: being hypocritical because of how close they were before. So
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: he's between a rock and a hard place. But You know,
• 10:15
  Speaker 4: Piker loves Piker even more than he loves Abdul El-Sayed.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: So he's more than happy to do major media interviews,
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: including this one with Alex Thompson of Axios. You might
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: remember Alex Thompson working with Jake Tapper. They were shocked,
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: shocked that Joe Biden was cognitively impaired in the, well,
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: for most of his presidency, let's be honest. Here is
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: Hassan Piker talking with Alex Thompson and suggesting that America
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: is a worse terrorist entity than Al-Qaeda.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: You once said that America is the top dog in terrorism.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Do you think America then is worse than Al Qaeda?
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: Pound for pound as far as the number of deaths. Yes,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: we have caused tremendous terror all around the world. I
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: think that that is not only terror that we are
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: waging on regular civilians in nations in the periphery, but
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: it's also having consequences on ourselves. It's having dramatic consequences
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: on the home front. One clear example of this is
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: what we did in Minop, right? There's no distinction between
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: blowing up a school, triple tapping it with tomahawk missiles,
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: if you're killing 140 schoolgirls, that is an act of terror.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: This doesn't mean that all Americans are terrorists, but the
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: reality of the matter is we have to create an
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: environment of accountability to ensure things like that never happen again.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: Jim, we've talked about this a lot. Assuming that happened,
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: it's not because we intended for it to happen. It's
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: way different than terrorists flying commercial airliners into skyscrapers in
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: the Pentagon and that sort of thing. And so This
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: false equivalency or whatever he's doing here is not only insane,
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: but it's also got probably, I'm sure, a lot of
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: people on the left just going, stop doing interviews.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: We were just talking about donors in our last martini.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: We've seen lots of times where a candidate for office
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: or an elected official gets in trouble because of one
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: of their donors. And the traditional defense is, well... I
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: don't know that donor. I can't control who donates to me.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I didn't know that this person had committed terrible financial
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: fraud or had an OnlyFans or any of these other
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: scandalous things. The next step is when, well, actually, here's
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: a picture of you with this donor. And then the
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: traditional expense is, well, this was at a rope line,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: an event. I shook a million hands that day. I
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: take pictures with a lot of people. It doesn't mean
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I know anything about them, blah, blah, blah. In this case,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, Hasan Piker did several events on college
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: campuses in Michigan for Abdullah Syed. Abdullah Syed is described
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to him as a friend. There are pictures of them
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: fist bumping, and I believe they attended an event the
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: day before the Democratic primary. So like the idea, and
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: now all of a sudden he's just this Twitch streamer
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: in California. All of a sudden it's like he's like Voldemort.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: You know, he won't even say his name out loud,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: which doesn't really, you know, hold water. Abdullah Syed has
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: nobody to blame but himself for this. If you hadn't
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: invited him, You might see Republicans trying to tie Hassan Piker,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: but Hassan Piker would basically be the left-wing equivalent of, like,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Nick Fuentes. You don't see Republican candidates for office inviting
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Nick Fuentes to speak with them at events and stuff
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: like that. But there's kind of a point that I
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: think is getting missed in all of this controversy, Greg,
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: and it is that Hassan Piker is a moron. And
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I don't just mean he's a moron because of his viewpoints,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: which I think is certainly sufficient evidence to come to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: that conclusion, but point out He says that pound for pound,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the US is more destructive than Al-Qaeda is. He doesn't
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: understand what pound for pound means, because that would assumedly
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: mean that by size, how much terrorism have you committed?
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Or destructive capacity per capita? Well, there are 330 some
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: million Americans out there, and Al-Qaeda at its total was like, what, 10,000 guys, 15?
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: Never more than 100,000 guys, right? So for sheer amount
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: of money spent or number of Americans, by all of
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: those capacities, the U.S. is actually not as destructive as al-Qaeda.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Particularly when you look at something like the 9-11 attacks, al-Qaeda,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: pound for pound, using that phrase accurately, is probably one
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: of the most destructive organizations that has ever existed in
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: human history. The second thing that comes to mind, he says, well,
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: not all Americans are terrorists. Thank you for that generous concession, Mr. Piker. Um,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: but I, by the way, no, the other meaning of piker,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: it's kind of funny to say that he's being generous,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: but generous. But anyway, the other thing, so you know what?
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So you're right. Not every American is a terrorist. In fact,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I think very few Americans are terrorists. It really takes
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: some effort to get into that. You don't accidentally stumble
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: into terrorism. However, do you know what every member of
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Al Qaeda is Greg?
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: A terrorist.
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: A terrorist.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: So once again, pound for pound, Al-Qaeda is much more
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: of a terrorist organization than the United States of America is,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: which means Hasan Piker frequently uses words that he doesn't
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: really understand or concepts or stuff like that. And a
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: part of it also is, I was on Hugh Hewitt's
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: program yesterday, and Hugh Hewitt's program is about three hours
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: a day. And I said, Hugh, if you had to
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: speak for like 12 hours a day, five or more
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: days a week, how often would you get in trouble?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: And Hughes said, thank God for the Federal Communications Commission
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: that prevents him from saying terrible, you know, and it
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: was just kind of this recognition that we should not
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: be surprised that Hasan Piker says stupid things. I would argue, though,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: that in a world full of podcasters, as we've mentioned
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: many times, Greg, any two schmoes can get a podcast.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: If you talk long enough, sooner or later, something's going
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: to come out and it's going to sound stupid. If
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: you do it for 12 hours a day or more, one,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: not as, you know, you're going to say stupid things,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: controversial things out of just, you know, the need to
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: keep saying things. But what's more, you're going to... First
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: of all, I don't think it's very good for your
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: mental health. And it was just kind of this recognition
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: that sooner or later, Hasan Paik... There are lots of
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: left-wing podcasters and streamers out there. What makes him stand
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: out is his willingness to say things like, America deserved 9-11.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: And America is a worse terrorist force than Al-Qaeda is.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: And Hamas is morally superior to Israel. And things like that. Otherwise,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: you and I would not be talking about him. He
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: would not be so controversial to be on the campaign
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: trail with Abdullah Syed. And nobody would really care because
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: the world is full of left-wing streamers in pocket that
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: nobody cares about, right? This is what makes Hasan Piker unique.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: This is what makes Hasan Piker newsworthy. And if Abdullah
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Syed really wants to win this race, he's got to
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: come out and say, he says a lot of crazy stuff.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I'm not responsible for that guy. I don't agree with
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: the stuff he says. Instead, he's like, I barely heard
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: of this Twitch streamer who there's a lot of pictures
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: of me campaigning with. Yeah, no kidding.
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: No kidding. And so in a Twitter meeting of people
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: I don't want to spend any time with, Jill Filipovich
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: says to Piker, I truly don't mean to sound like
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: a reactionary right winger, but if you genuinely hate the
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: United States and think it's the worst, most evil country
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: on earth, but you're a wealthy person with a job
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: you can do from anywhere, why do you live there?
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: And he says, beautiful question. Happy to answer. I'm an
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: American citizen. I love this country in spite of its
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: dark chapters because I'm I believe in its promise and
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: its people. It's up to us, people of good conscience,
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: to continue the struggle to unlock its true potential. Jim,
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: it was just days ago he went on a rant
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: because his internet connection wasn't working that great. I realize
• 17:16
  Speaker 4: this will be about 90% bleeps, but here's his reaction
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: to just that.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: Because I'm in the United States of America, the most
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: dog country on the planet, the absolute worst country on
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: the planet, straight up, bar none, a capitalist hole.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: Jim, I can just feel the love oozing from that.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: Greg, I really wish you hadn't played that in large
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: part because you and I have occasionally had internet problems
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: at Casa de Garrity, interrupting our attempts to, and I
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: gotta say, my reaction, not as different from Hasan Piker's
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: as I'd like it to be. Not nearly blaming capitalism,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: just blaming my internet service provider and or when the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: power goes out after a storm or something like that.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: But just his broader argument of, oh, why do you
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: still live here if you think this country is a
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: worse terrorist force than Al-Qaeda is? Guys, if you think
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: that Hasan Piker has a plausible and strong argument When
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: you go home tonight to your loved significant other, your wife,
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: your girlfriends, tell her, I don't love you as you are.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: In fact, you have many dark chapters in your history
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: and many glaring flaws. But I love your potential of
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: what you should be. If you're lucky, you'll be sleeping
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: on the couch. In all likelihood, you may get some
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: object hurled at you. Not that I would ever justify that.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to observe. He's not the first lefty
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: we've heard this from. And... People have always said that
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the conservative mindset, ideally conservatism is rooted in gratitude. Conservatives
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: look at America and they see everything that's going right
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: and they say, God, I love this country. We are
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: so lucky to be here. We're lucky to be born here.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: We're lucky to have immigrated here. This is terrific. Folks
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: on the left look at the country and they see
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: what's wrong. And we should point out, the country has problems.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: And they look at the flaws. They look at the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: ways we don't live up to our values. They look
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: at our times when we're too materialistic or we're not
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: able to help out the people who are really struggling
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: in life. And that's an important element of it. But
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: they focus so much on that, they can't see anything
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: that's going right. And they only see darkness like, well,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: America really stinks, but it could be someplace worthwhile someday.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: And when you do that, you want to hurl rotten
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: fruit at them.
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: I would suggest if you're running a business, you do
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: not say any of the things that we've heard Hasan
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: Piker say. You should be focused on your customers' needs
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: and meeting those in a way that makes them very,
• 19:31
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• 20:28
  Speaker 4: our third martini now. Don't really know how to qualify
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: this one, but our regular listeners know that Jim was
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: not here on Wednesday. He was hanging out with a
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: bunch of Cubans. and we can't talk a lot about
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: what exactly happened, but he was with the Cubans here
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: in Washington, D.C. They invited him. So, Jim, why did
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: they invite you? I know you're not allowed to talk
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: about it, but what did you learn that you can
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: talk about? And I know you've written about it today
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: for the.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Morning, Joel. So, when I got the invitation, I called
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: up my Ukraine buddies and said, this is not the
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Russians trying to grab me, right? And they're like, yeah,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: probably not. Oh, there's like a less than 1% chance
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: of that. It turns out that another very distinguished longtime
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: conservative journalist was also attending this meeting and had recommended
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: me to be included. And despite having strong and bile
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: in the back of my throat producing feelings about how
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the Cuban regime treats its people, When you get a
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: chance to meet with foreign officials in a situation like this,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: and it's obviously a newsworthy country, a country that's of
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: great interest to American readers, sure, I'll sit down and
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: have the meeting on bringing ways to make sure that
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: I can get out of it, what is technically Cuban
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: territory as well. By the way, fascinating, I did not
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: know this until I went there. Late April 2020, some
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: nut in the middle of the night goes to the
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Cuban embassy, raises a AK-47, and shot like 20-some rounds
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: into it, and they still have the pockmarks on the columns.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: This is in 16th Street in Washington, D.C. They have
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: a gate there, but you can still see the pockmarks
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: in them, and they apparently went through windows and into
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: the walls up there. Thankfully, nobody was hurt. This guy
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: had been born in Cuba, naturalized American citizen. I know
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: it's going to shock you, Greg. He had mental issues.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: He had gone to see a psychiatrist. He'd been given
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: antipsychotic medication, but decided he didn't need it. And hey,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: what's the worst that could happen? Well, it turns out
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: this incident is what happened. The cops catch him. They
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: arrest him. He pleads insanity. And under federal law, if
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: you're found insanity, they basically hold you until they determine
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: you're no longer a threat. I assume he's taking his
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: medication now, therapy, whatever other things are going on, and
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: after four and a half years of being in a
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: psychiatric institution and prison, he's a free man. Shot up
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: a building, could have killed somebody, thankfully didn't. Now walks
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the streets a free man. Also in April 2023, somebody,
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, February 2023, somebody threw two Molotov cocktails over
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: the fence at the Cuban embassy. Thankfully, once again, no
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: one was hurt. Damage for that one was pretty minor.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: That perpetrator has never been caught. Now, Greg, you and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: I are not fans of the Cuban government, but I
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: think we believe that you should not shoot at them
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: unless you're the CIA at Bay of Pigs. Or you
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: should not throw Molotov cocktails. Diplomats deserve to be protected,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: whether they're in, say, Tehran or any other country. The
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: nice people at the Cuban embassy are not the people
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: you really have a problem with. Let them go about
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: their business in peace.
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: I don't know how nice they are, but they shouldn't
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: be shot at.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Well, I was going to say, again, that's a minimum bar.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: The other thing is the fact this guy was let
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: out for four and a half years after emptying his
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: clip at a building, Greg. Look, I really don't like
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: lenient judges that let people out on the streets because, oh,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: we decided you're cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs. We think you're
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: safe now. Good luck, you know. But it really is
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: bad when you're embarrassing us in front of the commies, right? Like,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: we really want to look tough in front of these guys,
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: and here you are letting these guys go. Anyway, most
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: of the meeting was off the record, so I really
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: can't talk too much about it. The Cuban deputy foreign
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: minister was there. He's in town for the United Nations
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: General Assembly meeting next week. Um... They have one on-the-record statement.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: He's done other interviews with other publications, and I provide
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: some links to that. Probably the most interesting thing in
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: this is that Cuba is enacting a whole bunch of
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: economic reforms. You might be like, wait, I've seen this
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: movie before. It didn't really change very much. And there's
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: understandably a great deal of skepticism about this. Having said that,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Cuba is in about as dire economic straits as you
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: possibly could imagine. Blackouts from anywhere from 20 hours a day.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: Some parts of the entire country, it's basically nearly 24-hour blackouts.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: They no longer have Venezuela as an ally sending them
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: oil because it's under new management. And there's just generally
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: a sense that they no longer have the embargoes crushing
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: them every conceivable way. Unsurprisingly, the Cuban government believes it's
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: never done anything wrong. And all of this is the
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: fault of the Americans. All of this is the fault
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: of us warmongering and economic warfare and collective punishment. And
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: all these things are violations of international law and things
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: like that. Greg, you won't believe how politely I could
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: sit and listen when someone is saying something that I
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: vehemently disagree with. Cuba is basically abandoning communism. It's willing
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: to try to be more free market. Whether this is
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: going to work is a very open question, because in
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of cases, what they're saying, they want to
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: have private competitors in certain fields. Tourism, certain parts of
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: agriculture and food processing, banking. They're describing at some point
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: like you could have Cubans owning stock in private companies.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: That'd be really revolutionary. Like in Castro's country, for that
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: to happen, that would be a really big sweeping change.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: The idea of having a Havana Stock Exchange... probably unthinkable 10,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: 15 years ago. The fact that they're thinking about these
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: things and talking about these things, but you could point
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: to this and say, well, this is a sign the
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: embargo is working. This is a sign we should be
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: squeezing them even harder, that the more they can't have
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: enough revenue coming in to do that, the more that
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: we can actually do. On the other hand, there are
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: a whole bunch of Cubans out there who are not
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: outright communists, who don't like the regime, and they're getting
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: hit by the embargo as well. This is not me
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: arguing for lifting the embargo. This is just kind of
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: recognizing the human cost there. Either way, I'm glad I
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: got to have this conversation. Color me very skeptical of this.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: But that having been said, the Cuban regime is now
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: functionally recognizing not just the advantages of free market economics,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the necessity of free market economics. The state cannot do
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: what it needs to do anymore, and it needs to
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: open it up for at least theoretical private ownership.
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: I'm not.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a long ways to go on this,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: and there's every reason in the world to be skeptical.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: And in the end, what they're trying to do is
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: basically become more like China or maybe Vietnam, right? The
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: system of basically to be, well, we're going to give
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: you some economic freedom, but we're not going to let
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: you have any political freedom. By the way, Greg, guess
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: what percentage of members of the national legislature are members
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: of the Cuban Communist Party? All of them? 100%. Very good.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Really not that hard. There are 470 members. Hey, Greg,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: guess how many of the 470 voted for this package
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: of economic reforms?
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: 470. You got everyone.
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: And I want to point out, just for contrast, back
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: in 2014, the Russian government, the Duma, their legislature, voted
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: on formally, legally annexing Crimea. Can you guess how many
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: voted against that, Greg?
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: Zero?
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: Two. Two? One voted no and one abstained. Now, I
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: actually talked to the guy who voted no. He was
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: over in Ukraine. He was exiled from the country. He's
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: now leading the Russian Legion against the Rum. And about
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: a year after I chatted with him, Russia tried to
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: kill him by sending a drone into his house. So
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that voting no worked out great for him.
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to point out that in Russia in 2014,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: there was more political dissent about the annexation of Crimea
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: than there was this year in the Cuban National Legislature
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: for like 177 economic reforms in effect. Gee, it's funny
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: how you guys always come up 100%. There wasn't a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: single person who had any doubts about any of these
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: reforms at all. Nonetheless, they had really good coffee and
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I appreciated the invite and I'd be happy to go
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: back again.
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: Well, if they're following the China model, then the average
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: Cuban citizen has not a lot to look forward to.
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: The government's going to get rich if this actually happens.
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: And maybe some certain hand-picked corporations, just like China does,
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: that are basically affiliated with the government. But the average Cuban,
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: not so much.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: You can be rich. You just can't ever do anything
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: we don't want you to do.
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: That's that freedom where I come from.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 28:57
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  Speaker 4: save today. All right, Jim, real quickly in our chaser here,
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: our eyes kind of bulged this morning when we saw
• 30:26
  Speaker 4: that not only are Republicans struggling in some of the
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: swing state Senate races, there's one out in Idaho that
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: shows that in a head-to-head race, the Democrat is 11.5
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: points up on incumbent Republican Jim Rish. And if you
• 30:39
  Speaker 4: throw in the lower candidates, it's down to about a
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: six-point lead. And you're thinking, if Republicans are in trouble
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: in Idaho, that could be a significant thing nationwide. But
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: as we've dug into this, and by us, I mean Jim,
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: this group that did this poll, Advanced Targeting Research, there's
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: some questions about their methodology. In fact, Chuck Todd, who's
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: gone from pretending to be a normal journalist to absolutely
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: left-wing on Twitter, has basically said, pretty succinctly here, nearly
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: 90% of respondents on this poll were surveyed via text-to-web
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: This year's surveys that over-index on that methodology have shown
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: GOPers performing quite poorly. Either it's a sign of something
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: with young voters, or perhaps this methodology is missing key
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: pieces of the actual electorate. My hunch is it's the latter,
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: but Election Day will be the ultimate barometer, obviously. So, Jim,
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: the track record here is from what you discovered is
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: a little bit shady.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: Greg, first, I didn't recognize the name. I started digging
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: into it. Because then I remember American research group, ARG,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: and I imagine if you didn't like the results, you'd
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: see the result, ARG, and that's why they called it.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: But then advanced targeting research, first of all, that sounds
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: like a military contractor. That's kind of an odd name. Okay, fine.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: You're targeting research. The website of the company does not
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: give you a great deal of details about its background.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I asked one of the AI programs, how long has
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: this company been in existence? And it couldn't give me
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: any good answers on that. I did find a reference
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: to it in a newspaper article for Wyoming's Senate primary
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: back in 2024. So they didn't just get created this year.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: So apparently they've been around since at least 2024. Still
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: not a particularly long time. And it was that one
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: poll of registered voters in which they said that, you know,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Reid Rasner was going to unseat Senator John Barrasso. Basically,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: the idea was that Rasner had decent name ID. Barrasso
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: is still the senator. So that clearly did not shake
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: out the way Rasner wanted to happen there. Beyond that,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: not a lot of references to this pollster. So it's
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: very hard to evaluate them based on their past performance
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: in stuff like this. I'm very skeptical. Now, here's the thing.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I would point out, though, that my colleague Dan McLaughlin
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: just did a really comprehensive... Dan McLaughlin is one of
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: those guys who lives for Excel spreadsheets and loves to
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: plug in data and do all kinds of stuff. But
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: he's like, look, the polling for Republicans look bad. If
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Trump's approval rating is around 40%, you would expect Republicans
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to be polling pretty badly, but not necessarily in Idaho,
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: not necessarily in a bunch of other cases. And then
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: the other thing is that in a case like Texas,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: and we've talked about Ken Paxton versus James reanimated Howdy
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Doody Doll Tallarico plenty of times on this podcast. You know,
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: that one's doing pretty well. But Ken Paxton is a
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: uniquely flawed Republican nominee. I don't see any reason why
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Rish would be a uniquely flawed nominee. And we've seen
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: a bunch of these kind of fly-by-night pollsters show up,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: show us, oh, look, the Democrats are way ahead. And
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: in one of the primaries, was it the.
• 33:45
  Speaker 4: Michigan, for starters.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: There was also the Wisconsin governor's race with Francesca Hong,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: where somebody just came out and said, yeah, we just
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: made up some numbers and we wanted to see how
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: widely they would get cited on social media. And they
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: got cited far and wide. So because the hunger for
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: polling numbers greatly outpaces the ability to do reliable polling numbers... one,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: you get these people will make them up entirely, but
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: also you see a lot more. And you and I
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: have joked about not just the fundraising campaigns for, uh,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Doris and Donna. Um, but the fact that, you know,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: like I'm, I'm getting constantly pull spam texts towards me.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: I normally don't, I usually react the way Hassan Piker
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: reacts when he's not getting his internet service restored quickly enough. Um,
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: but nonetheless, my ad, like I, you know, so my
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: sense is, is that Ah, so you're getting the responses
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: of people who have nothing better to do than to
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: answer a bunch of questions from somebody who texted them
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: out of the blue. And again, we talked about not
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: being able to verify the donor responses. All you know
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: about a person is their phone number. So how do
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: you know that they're living in the right House district,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Senate district, or Senate state, or something like that? So
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: I find it very hard to buy this. Buyer beware
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: at this time of year. there's a hunger for polls
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: that will, you know, like people will, particularly when people
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: see good news for their side, they will eagerly share
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: that poll and not care if it's a survey of
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: like nine people.
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: That's exactly right. So be careful and make sure you
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: vote regardless of what the numbers say. So Jim.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: In fact, if you're in Virginia, if you're in Virginia,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: you can vote today. Also, I believe Minnesota and South Dakota.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: Utterly ridiculous. Jim, charity of national review. I'm Greg Karambas
• 35:28
  Speaker 4: of Radio America. Thanks so much for being with us today.
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: Please be sure to subscribe to the 3 Martini Lunch podcast.
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: If you don't already, tell your friends about it as well.
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: Thanks also for your five-star ratings and your kind reviews.
• 35:39
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• 35:41
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• 35:43
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• 35:46
  Speaker 4: I'm at Greg Karambas. Have a fantastic weekend. Join us
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: again on Monday for the next 3 Martini Lunch.