Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Chuck’s Commentary - Is Trump Deliberately Trying To Start A Civil War In Iran? + Daines Retirement Puts Montana Senate Seat In Play

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Chuck’s Commentary - Is Trump Deliberately Trying To Start A Civil War In Iran? + Daines Retirement Puts Montana Senate Seat In Play · The Chuck ToddCast

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  Speaker 1: They're happy Thursday, and welcome to another episode of the
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  Speaker 1: check podcast. This is our big weekend extravaganza, so you
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  Speaker 1: will have it for the weekend. My guest is not
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: other than my pow Chris Sliza. He has been my
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  Speaker 1: partner in crime on these live election nights and one
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of the things that I want to do when we
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  Speaker 1: do these big live election night specials as we did.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, thank you. An enormous turnout of
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  Speaker 1: to sk HQ, Chris Salizzi's channels, my channels. We're glad
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  Speaker 1: to know that, you know, basically election night for people
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  Speaker 1: that just want the information and not the spin. I
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: thinks turning into a more and more popular feature. So
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: we're happy to do that. But one of the things
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: we want to do is, you know, you sort of
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you deal in the moment, but you know, both Chris
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: and I like to sort of soak in the in
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  Speaker 1: the data as it comes in, and you sort of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: ruminate in it after and you after all the numbers
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: get in, you sort of learn more stuff. So he
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: and I spend a bit of a debrief, if you will,
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: for most things Texas and the fallout going forward, and
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I have a lot actually a few more things I
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  Speaker 1: want to say before we get to the interview with Chris,
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  Speaker 1: so because you know, yes, it was to kick off
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  Speaker 1: of the primary, but there's a lot of other things
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: that have that I've kind of left on the cutting
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  Speaker 1: room floor with you guys, simply because I've been very
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: focused on on the Texas primaries. Wanted to make sure
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  Speaker 1: our live Election Night special went well. But the fact
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: of the matter is the war that Donald Trump started
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: less than a week ago is not going well. It's
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  Speaker 1: it's not going certainly not going well politically. And the
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  Speaker 1: question is, you know, is it going to bog us down?
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  Speaker 1: How is it going militarily?
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  Speaker 2: Well? This feels in these early days, and look.
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  Speaker 1: I I want to be mindful, and it's it's in
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  Speaker 1: some ways when you're when you're skeptical about a decision,
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  Speaker 1: you can easily get quick to find reasons to reinforce
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  Speaker 1: your skepticism. So I am sort of acknowledging my own
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  Speaker 1: sort of editorial bias here.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: I think this feels like can of worms has been
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  Speaker 1: opened up, and now I'm looking around, I see a
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  Speaker 1: lot of worms.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: We've got multiple countries that have that have somehow been
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  Speaker 1: dragged into a piece of this war, whether it's drones
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  Speaker 1: or missiles fired by Iran at Gulf states, you know,
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  Speaker 1: including Uae or Bahrain, whether it's suddenly Sri Lanka getting
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  Speaker 1: getting drawn into it because we sank an Iranian naval
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  Speaker 1: ship sort of in their waters in the Indian Ocean.
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  Speaker 2: It is it feels like this is.
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  Speaker 1: I had hinted it for the last few weeks that
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  Speaker 1: one of the concerns I had about was the lack
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  Speaker 1: of was how much more risk averse the president was
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: becoming because he he had been warned about certain events
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and when he went against those warnings and bad things
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: didn't happen, it reinforced the notion in his head that hey,
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  Speaker 1: he knows, he knows this situation better than the so
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: called experts. And what am I referring to so assassinating
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  Speaker 1: Solomoni who was the head of the republic, the the
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  Speaker 1: i r GC for the Iranians, somebody responsible for the
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  Speaker 1: death of many Americans, many many folks in the Middle East,
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  Speaker 1: essentially the key strategists in their in their terror campaigns.
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  Speaker 1: That that could that could spark a lot of fallout
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  Speaker 1: for American resources in the in the in the in
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  Speaker 1: the region.
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  Speaker 2: It did not.
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  Speaker 1: The bombing campaign in the last summer that the US
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  Speaker 1: jointly did with the Israelis to uh finally penetrate and
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  Speaker 1: try to set back, if not, in the president's words,
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  Speaker 1: obliterate Iran's nuclear program was also something that the experts
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  Speaker 1: around him warned, Hey, be careful here, this could this
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  Speaker 1: could trigger a response that that could get that could
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: get out of hand quickly. Nothing seemed to happen there.
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  Speaker 1: If anything, the Iranians looked like a paper tiger. They
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  Speaker 1: were clearly not looking for a fight. They wanted they
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  Speaker 1: wanted out, and since we weren't pursuing regime change, they
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  Speaker 1: took that as a you know, we just keep them
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  Speaker 1: from attacking again.
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  Speaker 2: We'll take that.
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  Speaker 1: As a as a survive, not quite a win, but
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: a survive. Well, then came regime change, and let's look,
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  Speaker 1: this is clearly why we acted when we acted right.
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  Speaker 1: You know, all of the you know, while there's been
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: various confusing rationales that have been presented to the American
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: people about why we acted when we acted right, what
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  Speaker 1: seems to be the most truthful and the most salient
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and the most that has the most evident supporting that
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  Speaker 1: that has to be the reason is it was an opportunity, right,
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to get Kamani and the senior leaders of the
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  Speaker 1: Iranian theocracy and they were all going to be meeting
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  Speaker 1: in one place, and it was it was an opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: And apparently this opportunity was if you believe the reports
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: available every Saturday, right, which was this was a meeting
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  Speaker 1: he was having on Saturdays with his senior leaders and
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  Speaker 1: the Israelis. It appears that the CIA and the Israelis,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: both of the intelligence agencies, knew this was going to happen,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: and there was one report that indicated this was going
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to happen February twenty first instead of February twenty eighth.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: But there were weather issues, and this timeline is important.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to get to that in a minute. Which
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: would have been actually the weekend before the State of
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: the Union that these attacks could have started, but weather
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: issues and they decided to wait a week. At some point,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the president is informed by somebody is it net Yahoo
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: is at MBS right. We've had different pieces of reporting
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  Speaker 1: indicating different things that there was an opportunity that Kamanee
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  Speaker 1: was going to be meeting with this senior leadership and
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  Speaker 1: if they struck now they could get them. And essentially
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: it was a way could they pursue regime change without
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  Speaker 1: technically having to you know, if they just took out
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: cut off the head of the snake, maybe the snake dies. Well, look,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: we're not yet a week end of this thing, so
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I don't think we should say you know this, you know,
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  Speaker 1: cutting off the head of the snake hasn't worked yet,
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  Speaker 1: but there's a growing sense, and there's growing nervousness in
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  Speaker 1: the Pentagon and in even in those in and around
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  Speaker 1: the president that that the hope that once they got
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  Speaker 1: rid of Kamane, that there would be entities ready to
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  Speaker 1: rise up, or perhaps figures within the regime that's we're
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: going to be ready to make a deal, maybe ready
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: to switch sides. Maybe he could find his own Delsi Rodriguez,
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  Speaker 1: the puppet vice president of Maduro that is now essentially
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: become a de facto I don't know what to call her,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: but you know, as long as she pays pays Trump
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: in access to the oil, he's apparently going to leave
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: her alone and let her rule. Well, you know, the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: idea of democracy coming to Venezuela apparently is not the
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: rationale he used to get rid of Maduro. And he
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: had a singular reason to get Maduro's.
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  Speaker 2: He wanted the oil.
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  Speaker 1: Because again, if it was about democracy, we'd have something right.
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  Speaker 1: There would at least be a commission starting to figure
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  Speaker 1: out when the elections would be held, or maybe there
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  Speaker 1: would be a temporary transitional governance team that might include
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: the folks that actually won the last election that we
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  Speaker 1: recognized as a national government. But again, none of that
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  Speaker 1: has happened, none of that is close to even happening.
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  Speaker 1: So this is the rationale that he's essentially we're given here.
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  Speaker 1: And I say this because look, in talking to some
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: sources that I know of folks on the ground there,
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  Speaker 1: there's a few things that are already seem to be clear.
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  Speaker 1: Is that whatever force, you know, whatever group of folks
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  Speaker 1: that might wanted to overthrow the regime, they went underground
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  Speaker 1: due to the repression that the regime brought down upon
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  Speaker 1: the protesters in January, and those folks seem to be
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: either killed or underground.
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  Speaker 2: One.
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  Speaker 1: Two, there's definitely a power struggle, and there's definitely a
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: desire of this theocracy to survive. They're not interested in
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: putting down arms, and there doesn't appear to be a
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: movement to do that. You know, the president has sort
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  Speaker 1: of said, well, everybody we thought could be a candidate
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  Speaker 1: to be a transitional figure is dead, and then the
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: other people we keep thinking of, they die. Whether that's
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: just his rationale for not having a plan be here,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: or that is exactly what happened. Either way, there's a
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  Speaker 1: bit of a vacuum. So now we are publicly and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: this seems just insane to me when you think about it,
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  Speaker 1: on a number of levels. Number one, the CIA, we
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: are publicly letting people know that the CIA is trying
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  Speaker 1: to arm and train Kurds to essentially be a proxy
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  Speaker 1: force within Iran to try to disrupt and overthrow this regime.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm not quite sure, you know, what are we
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: promising the Kurds in return. You know, the Kurds have
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: been this incredible ally to the United States when they've
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: tried to deal with Isis, when they were dealing with
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: with with a sod and Syria. But the you know,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: but they but there's that that's a very complicated issue,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: right The Turks have their issues with the Kurds.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: Others have their issue with the Kurds.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: The Kurds, you know, thanks to our It's all goes
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: back to World War One, right, the fall of the
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire, and the Curds are kind of left out
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: of you know, they you know, you got land, but
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: you didn't get land. But I'm not going to get
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: through a history lesson here today. But it so now
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  Speaker 1: we're trying to essentially trigger a civil war. I'm trying
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: to figure out what.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: We hope to do.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Number One, Why are we publicly announcing what the CIA
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: is doing. It seems like that is a bit of
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: a head scratcher that you would do that.
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  Speaker 2: Number One.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: But if that's what we're you know, because every indication
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I've gotten from experts in Iran that at this point
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: now the fear is the only hope is that it
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: might that it's going to probably take a civil war
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: to figure out who's going to be the next leader
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: of Iran. There is no democratic transition, there is no
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: smooth transition. There isn't this isn't This isn't going to
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: happen as easily as I think people told Donald Trump
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: it could happen, or he may have manufactured in his
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: own head. Can I go back to the ease with
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: which he got Maduro out of Venezuela, the ease with
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: which assassinating Solamani and blowing up their nuclear bunkers in
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the mountains there, and the fact that there was no
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: immediate blowback, I think it it sort of.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Numbed him to the risk of this. And here we are.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: We now have multiple golf countries that thought having an
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: American air base meant they had they had security, it
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: would prevent a country from attacking them. Well, what's Iran done.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: They've been using very cheap rockets and drones to inflict
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: damage on Dubai, in the UAE, in Bahrain and in
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: other places.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Is this what the Golf States signed up for? Now
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: we know, we've got that report.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: That NBS was highly influential in convincing Trump to launch
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: these strikes. Never mind that the two people, one of
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the two people that were negotiating on behalf of the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: United States with the Iranians, with somebody who's in business
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: with the Saudis, whose Saudy sovereign fund. I've brought this
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: up before, but it bears repeating that this is a
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: You're you're trying to figure out step back here. You're
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out what's the rationale for why we're
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: doing this in round and why now we know Kahmani's.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: A bad guy.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: The Iranians have been doing terrible things in the Middle East.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: They have been this is a theocracy there, this is
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: this is there. They're immoral when their treatment of women,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: their treatment of lesbians and gays, treatment of pretty much
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: any minority group. It is a theocracy. There's there's not
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: a defense of how they implement human rights in their country.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: And they're not alone in being on human rights. And
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: I'm glad to see we want to take a hard
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: line with iron I'm sorry when I don't take a
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: hard line with Russia, but I digress. But it is
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: important to understand this because we keep getting different rationales.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Why did we do it when we did it? The
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: president's business relationships with these countries and the golf you
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: cannot discount them as being factors in this. In this
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: you know, I'm not going to sit here and say
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: it was the only factor, but you can't discount it.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: And then here you have a conflicted private citizen in
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Jared Kushner who's in business with the Saudis, whose private
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: equity fund really wouldn't be taken seriously without the Saudi
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Sovereign funds investment. He's negotiating with the Iranians, and then
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: he's going back when we find out NBS, and again,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: I know I've been ranting about this before. NBS is
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: directly lobbying the present to go in with the Israelis.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: And do this take out Kamani.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: It is time.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: The Iranians have never been this week, They've never been
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: this vulnerable. Strike now it is from a strategic point
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: of view, understandable on the timing, and there's no doubt
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the Saudi's benefit from a week Iran Saudi's and I'll
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: be very curious, are the Saudi is going to be
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: excited about a strong, small d democratic Iran when that happens,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and hopefully the next five to ten years, but let's
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: be realistic, it's probably going to take that long. But
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: here he is lobbying. And so Kushner comes back to
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: the president, to his father in law and says, yeah,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: they're not serious about this, right, NBS has already been
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: lobbying the president. Kushner comes back and reports that we
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: have no idea what kind of conversations Kushner is having
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: with his business partners in Saudi A review. That's why
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: you worry about conflict of interest, folks. This is why
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: you don't want this in your infecting your government, because
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: it erodes trust, belief. We don't know what is the
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: real motivation here. Then you've had other pieces of this
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: rationale having to do with well, Israel was going to
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: go anyway, or supposedly we wanted to go, but we
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: didn't want to look like we were going first. So
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: we were hoping Israel would launch these attacks, they'd get attacked,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: and then we'd response, and then we were just looking
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: like we were coming in.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: By the way.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: You know, Israel's brand is not great in the United
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: States these days, in either political party.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: We know this.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: It doesn't help that our government almost is trying to
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: use Israel as a shield here and that they're going
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: to get you know. You see, I don't think they're
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: they don't mind if people that are unhappy with this
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: decision don't blame the American government, but they blame the
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: Israeli government. And I'm highly concerned that there are people
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: in this Trump administration that are in some ways totally
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: fine with that just blame the Jews. So I certainly
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: hope that some that do care about this issue end
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: up correcting the record of us. This episode of the
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  Speaker 1: code Chuck podcast at checkout for the fifteen percent discount. Again,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: use the code Chuck podcast. But the point is is
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: that the president is really struggling with a rationale. And
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: I think one of the near term issues that's clearly
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: you know, sort of it's the type of thing that
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the public pays attention to is this issue of stranded Americans.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: And I want to get into this a minute, because
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: that keeps changing.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: The President's first response on this is well, it all
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: happened very quickly right on Tuesday when the President is
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: asked and again I would have made a bigger deal
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: out of this is my podcast. The other day, but
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: I was very focused on the Texas primaries. So during
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: this one press of fatile he's asked why there was
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: no evacuation plan for Americans in the region before the strikes,
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: and the President said this, Well, it all happened very quickly.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: We thought, and I thought, maybe more so than most,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: that we were going to be in a situation where
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: we were going to be attacked. So they were getting
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: ready to attack Israel, they were getting ready to attack others.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: So I think I was right about that we attacked first.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: So as you could see here, he's desperate to try
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: to try to come up with the rationale that there
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: was an imminent threat. Well, there's clearly was no imminent
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: threat from the Iranians. And oh, by the way, this
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: idea that we had to act fast, can I can
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: I remind you of the timeline of this and so
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: this idea that we didn't have an evacuation plan in
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: places because we had to act fast. Okay, here's what
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the United States has been doing. And the President of
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: the United States was live tweeting, has been live tweeting
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the build up of our military assets in the region
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: since mid January. In mid January, the President orders the
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: USSA Abraham Lincoln Strike Group to the region, explicitly calling
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: it quote a massive armada heading to Iran mid January.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Remember today is March. I'm taping this in the first
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: week of March. Okay, so this is more than six
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: weeks ago. Then on February thirteenth, all right, the middle
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of last month, the USS Gerald Ford, the world's largest
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: aircraft carrier, was redirected to the Middle East, which meant
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: we had our rare two carrier hammer there you had
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the Lincoln and the Ford. Apparently it's moderate Republican presidents
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: that are named for our aircraft carriers in this war.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: But I digress.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Then, between February seventeenth and twenty six, over two hundred
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: military cargo flights delivered hardware to bases in Israel and Jordan.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: On February twenty fourth, twelve f twenty two Raptors offensive
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: stealth jets arrived in Israel, yet another clear signal that
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: a combat was imminent. So the Pentagon had time to
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: move five thousand ton warships halfway around the world. They
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: had time to fly two hundred cargo planes full of missiles.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: They had six weeks of build up to plan for
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: the February twenty eighth strike on Iran. If they had
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: time to move the armada, why didn't they have time
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: to move the Americans. So the administration is claiming, well,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: they had an element of surprise. That's what they needed
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: as the excuse of why they didn't warn Americans to
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: leave earlier.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: Okay, surprise, we.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Had an armada there for forty days. The Iranians were
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: not surprised that we were going to attack. Old World
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: was wondering when we were going to attack. All of
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: our newsrooms, myself included in my own, we were constantly planning, Okay,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: if we attack Iran in the next twenty four hours,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: we got to do this. We got to We all
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: had plan vs for what we were going to do.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Win the administration clearly signaling this was not hidden, This
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: was in plain sight. The only people who seem to
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: have been surprised by this were the American tourists and
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: expats who were told by the State Department to stay
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: put and use commercial flights to leave the region. Flights,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: by the way, that were canceled the second the first
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: bombs were dropped. You remember on January thirteenth, the President
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: famously tweeted that help is on the way to the
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Iranian protesters, and in theory, you can say within about
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: forty days help arrived. So six weeks ago the President
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: promised help is on the way, and he was talking
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: about the aircraft carriers. But if you're an American teacher
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: in Kuwait, a contractor in Bahrain, and you're calling the
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: State Department's emergency line on March third, you know what
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: you got. You got an automated recording that said, please
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: do not rely on the US government for assistant departure.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: Help wasn't on its way for them, was flying right
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: over their heads. So this idea that they, you know,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: they were not thinking about the evacuation plans for the
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: scores of Americans that now live and work in this region.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Right Abu Dhabi has turned into one of the most
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: three or four most important financial hubs in the world.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: So we had forty five days of logistics, two carriers,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: three hundred and thirty warplanes, two hundred cargo ships, and
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: then we issue a depart now order on Monday night,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: two days after the war started. In the air the
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: courts were already closed. So the point is is that
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: this specific incident, right, So there's already questions about what
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: is the rationale. Did we do it for a preemptive
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: reason because we thought the Iranians were going to strike us?
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Did we do it because it was an opportunity because
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: comane you could get Kamane. And did we do it
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: because we were trying to save the protesters who were
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: getting repressed and killed in response for them protesting the government?
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: The rationales keep changing on that. And if you're the
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: American public, and then you also you start to ask yourself, Man,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: is this the keystone cops here? Because they seem to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: have all this, they knew what they wanted to do here,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: to play war, to do a war game. They didn't
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: think about the consequences for American citizens that live and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: work in the region. And the point is is that
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: this inability to plan to deal with American citizens in
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the region is only going to reinforce the notion, well,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: if you didn't plan for that, what else didn't you
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: plan for? If you weren't prepared for that, what else.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: Aren't you prepared for?
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: And we're supposed to believe we're going to be able
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: to stand up a transitional government in Iran at some point.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: This is this thing's not going well for him. In
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Mike's this is the first time I in my lifetime
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: that an initial military action ordered by the President of
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the United States has not been met with a majority supporting.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: The strike.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: We even got the bad guy within forty eight hours, right,
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: the one known bad guy that people, oh, the Ayahtola.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: They might not know Komani Kamni, but everybody knows Ayatola.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: So you even have your headline and at best you're
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: at forty nine forty eight. A poll that looked like
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: it was cranked up a little bit to make it
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: to just get the approval of the missile strike to
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: forty nine, to be a net positive by a point,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: also happen to be a poll to show the highest
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: job approval rating that any polls shown in six months.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: So I know the poster that put out the pole,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: and I think he did an honest job, but I
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: think he modeled it on an electorate that doesn't really exist.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: At the moment.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Number one and number two, it's already an even split,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: and the single best headline that you're going to get
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: out of this attack has already taken place. The death
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: of the Iyatola. So what's plan C. We're going to
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: help arm and fund an insurgent force of Kurds and
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: hope that they can help essentially decapitate the regime from
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the inside. Because we're not putting boots on the ground.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: We're going to use the Kurds as the US boots
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: on the ground. I mean, essentially, it sounds like we're
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: hoping now for a civil war since there's no Since
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: this isn't going to be easy, so the only and
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: we don't want the Ayatolas to stay in charge. So
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: plan sees a civil war and hope for the best,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: which is essentially how a rack ended up. This is
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: a rack on steroids. The much bigger country, there are
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: more factions, and we have less credibility than we've had before. Look,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: there's there's plenty of good that's come out of this,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: and geopolitical stuff. The biggest is you know, if if
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: you're an ally of Russia and China, like Iran is
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: slash was, you're wondering what it's what it's been good for?
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Absolutely nothing? Sorry, I couldn't help myself. We have war,
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: What is it good for allies with China? Or you know,
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: if China is your ally, they're not coming to your defense.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: If Russia is your ally, they're not coming to your defense.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: So in that sense that you know, we've exposed that,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: I think that's a good thing. And I don't want
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: to sit here and say that isn't right China and
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: Russia are, you know. I hope the United States is
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: still a good ally for our allies. Hopefully we haven't
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: alienated too many of them. But this is not going well,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and I don't know how it gets better anytime soon,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: because in order to create the stability necessary for this
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: to get better, we've got to invest a lot more
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: time and energy into this region. And guess what's politically
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: unpopular doing exactly that. So the question is politically, I
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: don't you know. You look and it's like you look
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: at this combined Tuesday now the debacle of of sort
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: of an array of rationales that may or may not
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: be the reason why we launched the attack when we did,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: we were going to do but whenever we did it,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: it was a surprise, and we didn't have time to
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: worry about American citizens in the region. But we did
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: have six weeks build up of our military assets.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: To say that this war is not.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Going well for the president, not helping his credibility as
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: an understatement, and you know this is exactly why. Look,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: I think people did support him because he said, I'm
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: not going to get us into these quagmires because it's
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: a lot easier to start a war than it is
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: finish it. And you know, the opposition gets to say,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: the people you attacked, the country you attack, there are
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: people that they're going to have their own say, and
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: they're going to have their own timeline, and they're going
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: to have their own survival strategy. You can't assume everybody
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: thinks like you, Right, It's one of the mistakes we
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: make in the press corps generally. I don't want to
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: assume everybody is thinking like me. But I'm just reacting
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: to what we're seeing. And I'm trying to give you
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: historical context for why this is the single most successful
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: military operation in my lifetime. Was the first Golf War.
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: George hw.
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: Bush did what he said.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: And they said they were going to liberate Kuwait. They
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: liberated Kuwait and they left, and the American public was
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: extraordinary supportive of it, but they didn't reward George HW.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Bush politically within eighteen months he was in danger of
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: finishing third place in a three way presidential election, and
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: he ended up finishing a semi distant second.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: That's under the best case.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Scenario for a military intervention in a country that starts
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: with I weren't a situation where he doesn't have any
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: of the same benefit of doubt that at George HW.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Bush did any of the same you know, there was
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: no you know in that. Again, both Bushes built a
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: coalition of supporters, took their case to the United Nation,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: made their case to the American people, and frankly to
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: the world. Something this president has done noneough, And when
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: you've done none of that, you have no you have.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: You know, all he has is his own political base
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: that he can hope will have his back, and he's
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: finding out not everybody does. It's interesting to me when
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: you look inside the numbers. Support for this operation among
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Republicans is high, but it's not super high. It's it's
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: seventy six percent. And anytime you're actually under in eighty
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: percent with your own party on anything, that's actually a
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: bit problematic. It's true in job rating that when does
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: when do presidents now get concerned. Not when, not when
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: the overall number gets below say forty three, forty four,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: it's when your your own party number gets below eighty.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: In the most recent polls I've seen have all been
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: in at about the mid to high seventies of support,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: with the rest of Republicans either against or in not
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: sure yet. That's not going to get better. That's only
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: going to slowly erode away. And you know, right in
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: the middle of the Texas primary the other night, get
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: a breaking news alert that we're suddenly using military assets
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: to go after cartels in Ecuador and we're claiming narco terrorism.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: By the way, I think we still are owed a
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: better definition of narco terrorism. I think we're owed a
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: better explanation for our just what looks to many people
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: like indiscriminate bombings of these boats in the Near Pacific
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: and Caribbean. But this is, you know, this is the
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: issue here is the president has personalized this presidency. He
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: sees this as his military. He thinks he can just
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: you know, he has no ideology, he has no he's
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: a unilateralist. He's not a multilateralist. He's not a bilateralist.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: He's not an isolationist. He is simply a unilateralist. What
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: he says goes, He hopes that's the way people behave
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: in politics. Is an endorsement like his his announcement that
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: when he endorses in the Texas center race, he expects
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: the candidate that doesn't get his endorsement to drop out. Yeah,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: that would be better for him, just like he expected
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: the Iranian leaders to roll over like Delsi Rodriguez did
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: for him. That isn't the way the world always works.
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: That isn't the way life works for anybody. But he's
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: been deluded into thinking that he can make this happen
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: in his own presidency. And just because he's got sick
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: of fans around him that say sure, yes, sir and
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: all that business, doesn't mean this is actually how the
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: world operates. And this is a mess, and this is
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: a mess that doesn't look like it's going to get
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: better anytime soon. And the problem that Trump's going to
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: do is he is smart enough not to put boots
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: on the ground that would just not you know, he's
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: already going to be asking Congress for more money to
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: pay for this war. I think that I think it's
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: the floating is fifty billion dollars supplemental. I'm skeptical that
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: is going to be among the hardest votes that the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Republicans have had to jam through, I think, and I'm
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: not sure there's there's always been a handful of Democrats
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: that are very hawkish on Iran, But when this supplemental
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: comes with this lack of rationale, this is likely to
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: be a majority unpopular by the time they're asking for that.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: That is going to be among the tougher votes to
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: do in an election year. So Tuesday night, right already
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: a bad night for Republicans, with a nasty runoff that's
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: about to happen in Texas, Democrats end up getting a
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: nominee that that appears to be more electable than Texas
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: than any nominee they've ever had before, or at least
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: going back since and Richard's. And then you have this
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: erratic nature of how the war is being conducted at
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: the moment, and for United States credibility, he's not going
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: to back down now, right, So I have a feeling
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: this is not just another issue he's got to deal with.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: This is going to be the issue that dominates and
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: overtakes his presidency. And I guess what's amazing about this
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: is that it was a choice, and I think it's
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: a choice that he's someday going to regret. He may
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: already regret it, and I can tell you this, we
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: already know jd Vance already regrets it. I was a
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: bit of a hot take with chrys Elizabeth. I do
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: think this is at the heart of the political identity
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: that jad Vance has tried to forge, and he now
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: has to defend an administration that does the exact opposite
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: of of what he's been advocating and his rationale for
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: why he was on Team Trump in the first place.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I think it when something gets it to the core
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: of who you are, of your political identity, and you
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: suddenly have to just flip on it, you never recover.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Doesn't mean he won't get the nomination, but you never
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: recover that that is a tattoo, right that is going
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: to be hard to erase from the public's mind.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: All Right, Before I get to Chris's interview, a few other.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: Basically, I've had a notebook of items that I've not
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: been able to get to for some time. Quickly on
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: the on the president's pronouncement that he's going to endorse
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: in the Texas Republican primary, and he expects the candidate
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: he doesn't endorse to drop out. And all the reporting
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: is indicating that Cornyn is that Dune has convinced him
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: to do this, and everybody's going to convince him to
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: do Corny, Why are we so convinced that Ken Paxton
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: is just going to say, Okay, I'll drop out now
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: he's going to expect something in return. This is look
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump has created a Republican transactional mindset that if
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: you want something, if you want somebody to do something,
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: you're going to have to get to give something in return.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: So what's Trump going to offer Paxton to get out
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: early and to try to save the Republican Party? One
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: hundred million dollars that's probably what it would cost, and
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: it's no guarantee that they'd win this runoff anyway, which
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: of them, Which means they're going to privately spend three
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: or four hundred million dollars to try to rescue Paxton.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: And it's not really rescue Paxton, it's just to destroy
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Tall Rico. So you're looking at I think they're looking
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: that can they save a half a billion dollars what's
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: he going to offer Paxton? Is there an ambassadorship that
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: he wants?
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: Is this?
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Is this actually the exit ramp for Christy no Right,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: who is clearly going to be the scapegoat for the
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: unpopular immigration enforcement policies of this administration?
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: She is it is? I think she now knows it's coming.
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: It's clear.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: It's not a matter of if she's out, it's when
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: they decide to pull the trigger there?
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: Does John Thune agree?
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Does John Cornyn agree to somehow help confirm Ken Paxton
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: as the next DHS secretary to replace no.
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: How what kind of bargain are Trump, Thoon, and Cornan
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: willing to strike to get Paxton out of the way
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: somebody who they've made the case is morally bankrupt, by
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: the way, not Donald Trump, but Thuone and Cornyn have.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: But the point is is I I I just got
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: to get somebody to quit magically, And there's nothing more
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: embarrassing to Trump. You know why Trump wants Paxton to
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: drop out.
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: He knows Paxter could win.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Corny's not a believable mega guy. Look, Trump still matters
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: in the Republican Party, just as chip Roy. Chip Roy,
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: while he made it to the runoff in the attorney
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: general's race in Texas finished kind of a distant second.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: He's unlikely to win this runouf And you know why.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: His primary opponent who defeated him essentially made the case
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: that chip Roy wasn't a trumpy guy and noted that
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: chip Roy was essentially thought the election de nihilism was
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: silly and thought fighting, you know, essentially fighting going against
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: certification was a bad idea. So the point is is
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: that chip Roy was damaged when a campaign was running
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: against him, that he wasn't sufficiently pro Trump. So I'm
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: not you know, Trump is it? But this is the
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: trap that Republicans are in right now. You can't get
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: out of a primary without Trump, and right now Trump
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: is baggage if you're trying to win a general election
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: in a fairly competitive state. You know, a light from
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: light red to purple. And I think the question we
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: all have in our minds is Texas now light red?
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: It's not purple, but is it now light red? I
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: think of Paxson's nominee. Yes, the answer to that is yes.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: A few more thoughts in tall Rico. It is interesting
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: to watch the coalition that he ended up building and
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: I think the biggest vulnerability he's going to have it
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: in general is that he's a lot more progressive than
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: his persona. Let's on right, being a pastor, and this
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: is a reminder. You can be an ideological conservative or progressive,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: but if you have a moderate persona, you can win
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: over swing voters who may may not who if you
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: seem like you're reasonable to deal with right, which.
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: Can explain to mom.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: Donnie and I grew up with a conservative senator named
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Connie Mack, who is quite conservative. Would argue probably more
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: conservative than either Rick Scott or Mark or Ruby on
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: some things. But Connie mac always had a smile on
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: his face. He used to call him the conservative with
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: a smile demeanor is everything. Ronald Reagan very conservative. We
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: always had a smile on his face. Moderate temperament, and
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: that could be the secret Tall Rico right. Strident liberalism
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: and strident conservatism turn off the middle. Something potentially to
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: be learned here, But I is look. I think, on
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: one hand, I think the Tall Rico victory sends a
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: message nationally that hey, Demo was running some errands Wednesday
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: morning and ran into an acquaintance, all right, And I
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: was just sort of complaining that I was tired from
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: the late night covering the Texas primaries. And this person
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: said to me, oh, that's right.
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: Was that last night?
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: And I said yeah, And he's like, who won? And
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: this is a person I've never really talked like hardcore
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: politics with, just sort of like, boy, it's crazy out there.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: It's sort of the atmospheric. I have this whole group
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: of people. I'm sure some of you have this where
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: you kind of talk about politics like you talk about
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the weather. It's like, man, it's nuts out there today,
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: you know, or something like that, and you just kind
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: of say it and then you don't say anything else.
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: Because you don't really want to get into a conversation.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: Because you're not one hundred percent sure where they fit,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: but you know that they will agree. Oh yeah, it
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: is crazy. You know, everything's crazy in Washington. And I said, oh,
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: I said, And they said, well who won? I was
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: following that one guy and I said, you mean the
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: young pastor? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that guy. I said, well
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: he won the primary. And he goes, oh, I'm kind
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: of glad to see that. I'm tired of the bomb throwers.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: And I wouldn't have.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: You know, I think this person truly is someone who's
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: sort of a small business owner. For what it's worth,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: I'm not a very political person. I know it's hard
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: to say that in Washington, but believe it or not,
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: there's a chunk of people that just happened to live
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: in Washington and it's the nation's capital. Doesn't mean not
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: everybody works in either in government or a derivative of government.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: There's a there's a chunk of folks who are, you know,
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: no different than small business owners in Kansas City, des Moin,
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: et cetera. But it was that bomb thrower, right, And
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: I've been talking to you guys about where's the Democratic
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: Party divide are they? Are they looking for a fighter
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: or a uniter.
• 48:50
  Speaker 2: And or are they looking for.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: A bomb thrower or a peacemaker? And I was a
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: lit little skeptical that peacemaker was going to work. And
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: it's very possible this is a Texas Democratic thing less,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: so everywhere else we're going to find out, Right, it
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: could be that main Democrats want something different, but as
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: a first impression to the party, it's probably doing the
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: Democratic Party brand some good that their first winner is
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: not a bomb thrower, Right, it is if you followed,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: and it's one of those things if you follow politics online.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: It looks like the Democrats are trying to emulate Trump,
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: bomb thrower, all this business. But it's interesting to me
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: that in real life they perhaps voters behaved differently. Here
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: it's one race, one state, one state who's got a
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of people who you know, Democrats who haven't
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: won in a long time, so they'll you know, they're
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: looking for anybody they view as electable. But it's an
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: interesting it's an interesting thing to watch.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Truly is a trip.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: All right, let me sneak in a break and when
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: we come back, my full on debrief all things. We
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: break it all down about Texas, North Carolina and what
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: this means going forward, including a new candidate, a new
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: independent candidate for the US Senate in the state of Montana.
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  Speaker 1: something you should really think about, especially if you've got
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  Speaker 1: a growing family. Well, before I get to questions, I
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: want to deal with a little bit of break. It
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: was perfect with breaking news as we were taping this
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  Speaker 1: pod for the weekend, and sometimes you're relieved when it
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  Speaker 1: happens while you're still in the midst of taping and
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: the big breaking news with Steve Daines calling it a
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: career in Montana and doing it within seconds of the
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: end of the filing deadline. Look, I'm coming to you
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: pretty cold on this, but if you recall a couple
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: of a couple of months ago when I was talking
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: about the what you what were you would likely to
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: see as this, you know that there would probably be
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: some more retirements that we weren't expecting. This will put Montana,
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: this is, this is going to put the Montana sentence
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: heat completely really in play. Now there will be a
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: maybe there's a Republican primary, or maybe there's a quick
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: endorsement and maybe there's a deal. Maybe this is why
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: Zinke's we're going to figure all this out.
• 54:29
  Speaker 2: And I'm I'm, I'm you know.
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: But the bottom line is Montana is a competitive state.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: We've already seen. The question now is whether does this
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: Independent Canada get more traction? Is there pressure on John
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: Tester to come out of retirement. I'm I have there's
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: every indication in the interactions I've had with with with
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: John over.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: The last few months.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: I'd be surprised he wants to get off that tractor
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: now that he gets to be on that tractor every day.
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: So I don't think he's going I would be surprised
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: if he did. But now we've got an open House seat,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: an open Senate seat, Montana is going to be a
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: now key cog in campaign twenty twenty six, and it's
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: going to be an interesting test because Montana is a
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: red state, but it's a libertarian red state, right, It's different,
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: and there is a skepticism of of you know, of
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: strong government, right Trump is not, you know, this is
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: this is a bit more of a libertarian conservative state
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: rather than a strong government conservative state. So it's you know,
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: the right type of you know, you've got to be
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: a pro Second Amendment Democrat if you want to win
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: state wide in Montana. And you know, but being skeptical
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: of too much development is actually a good thing in Montana.
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: And sometimes that you know, Democrats have done well when
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: they've been able to paint a Republican as a sort
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: of as a transplant, if you will, or somebody that
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: just sort of you know, has moved to Montana. There's
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: a real sort of are you native not native divide
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: there if you watch Yellowstone at all. In fact, I
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: think in season four and season five, that becomes a
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: piece of that of that storyline, which is the skepticism
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: of the outsiders coming in and fear that Montana is
• 56:33
  Speaker 1: going to become the next Colorado, right, Colorado's politics. You
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: talk to old Cranky conservative libertarian conservatives in Colorado, and
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: they'll tell you this state changed when the Californians moved here,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: and that's what you hear from some Now Montana's this
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: state's changing now that the Californians and the New Yorkers
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: are coming, because I think there's now a NonStop from
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: LaGuardia to Bozeman, right, And you would think, is that
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: a good thing for both or do they not want
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: to make.
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: It so easy for the East Coasters to come in?
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: But this is a.
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: What's amazing about Danes doing this at the last minute? Again,
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: one assumes, since he was an actual NRSC chair a
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: cycle ago, in charge of helping to get Republicans elected
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: to the Senate, that there is some sort of plan here,
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: because this puts the Republicans on the defensive. This is
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: a This is not an easy seat. This is like
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: defending an open seat in Alaska. The Republicans are favored,
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: but it's going to be some work. But I can't
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: help but go back to what I said at the
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: start of this calendar year about the growing number of retirements,
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: And granted that was more on the House side than
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: it is on the Senate side, but as these filing
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: deadlines were coming up that you were going to have
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: some that we're going to have second thoughts. Did they
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: want to tie them to Trump for one more election cycle?
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: Do they see the.
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: Riding on the wall? Do they want to be in
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: the minority? There is you know, again where we'll find
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: out all of his rationale. I'm admittedly coming to you
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: with very other than the news that he's not running,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: and we're going to get more information about that. But
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: the reality is an open seat means competition, and this
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: was already a race that Democrats were trying to figure
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: out do they try to put it in play getting
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: behind an independent candidate, or is there is there another
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: way to do this? Well, now they're definitely going to play.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: And the question is what you know? Basically, it's it's
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: as if the you know, you played my father's favorite
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: card game when I was five years old.
• 58:43
  Speaker 2: Fifty two pickups.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: Right, You've just thrown all the cards, the deck of
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: cards up in the air, and now we've got to
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: figure out where everything is going to end up and
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: where everything's going to play. But that's another seat to
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: defend in a place that Democrats have had success in
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: the past. Particularly in midterm years. It is it is
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: a lot easier for a Democrat to pull off a
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: victory in a midterm year in Montana than it is
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: in a presidential year. That is a much harder task,
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: particularly for Senate candidates. But boy, this week keeps getting
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: worse for the Republicans. Right you have a White House
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: completely distracted by the the you know when was the
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: last time they did affordability pitch. It's the infrastructure week
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: of of.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: This term for Trump.
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: He is bogging the party down to having to defend
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: something that is not going to be very popular. That's
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: taking place in Iran. And now they have more places
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: where their their vulnerability is going to be. Uh, it
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: is going to be on the ballot. So Democrats Haley Barberism.
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: Good gets better and bad gets worse. I think we
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: just have a week of headlines that show you for
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: the Democrats, good has gotten better. They got the Candida
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: they want it, no runoff. Republicans haven't run off. Now
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: they got a new open seat they can target. Good
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: got better, Bad got worse. They're stuck going to run off.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: The President's demanding somebody drop out. We'll see if that happens.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: They have another incumbent deciding I'm out. I'm not doing
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: this anymore for whatever reason that is. And oh, by
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: the way, he just started a war that is polarizing
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: at best and shifting towards potentially majority unpopular at worse.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: Bad is getting worse, ass Chuck, Hey, Chuck, watching your
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: live stream and the Texas primary night.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: Love the coverage.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: I'm curious of states that are traditionally red or blue
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: get less federal investment than swing states. Does a traditionally
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: red state like Texas get taken for granted by the
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: right and ignored by the left, while Ohio gets all
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: the infrastrucure investments as both sides try to woo their
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: vote for example. If this is the case, I wonder
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: i people would feel a little worse about the jerrymandering
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: that locks the state's representation in for a particular party.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: He goes thanks to his PS I listened to your
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: podcast on one point three speed, and my girlfriend listens
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: at regular speed. This may end up being our deal breaker.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: That's interesting.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: I already feel like I'm kind of a fast talker,
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: so I don't know how I feel about being on
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: one pay feed. And if I start speeding up. What
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: does it sound like if you put this on one
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: point three speed? All right, I know I'm coming across.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: I was going to make a reference to the to
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: a FedEx AD from the late eighties, and I thought,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: wait a minute, I'm guessing you have no idea what
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about. So I'll give you a better example
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: than what you just describe. You know why I have ethanol.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: Why we all put ethanol in an ethanol mixture in
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: our cars for gasoline, It's because I was a first
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: in the nation state for the presidential caucuses over the
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: last forty years, and you've had candidates on both sides
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: of the alpander to the ethanol industry. That's a big
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: deal in Iowa. So being you know, being a presidential
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: primary state, your issues matter. You know, I promise you
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: if Nevada it stays first in the nation, Yuca Mountain
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: is never going to be a place where our nuclear
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: waste gets dumped because you'll never be able to win
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: the Nevada caucuses if you're a presidential candidate saying no,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: we should put our nuclear waste in the desert in Nevada.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: The point is the answer is yes. Now Texas is
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: not the best example because Texas being such a when
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: Republicans are in power, just like Texas benefits when Democrats
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: are in power, California, New York benefit and you see
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: it directly. And why do they benefit. Well, a lot
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: of the.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: Time the leaders.
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: Of Congress end up coming from some the largest delegations,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: and maybe they'll be the top leader like Schumer New York, Pelosi, California,
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: Aking Jeffreys, New York, or they're you know, the number
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: two or number three you know in this right, John
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: Corny and Ranford leader he once was you've got you know,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: back in the early odts, Tom Delay essentially ran Congress.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: He was a suburban Houston member of Congress, Dick Army.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: There was a time that Texas had number two and
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: number three in the House leadership. So I don't know
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: if Texas is the best example on that front.
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 2: But the point is the point is.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: Your instinct is spot on right, which is the more
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: competitive of a of an area that you are, the
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: more likely candidates are going to pander with you, with
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: to fight for you on certain issues inside the federal government.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: And if you're consistently a swing state or a swing
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: area or all of this, like Iowa was for about
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: thirty years. And magically ethanol is going to be something
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: that you pump into your car whether you're in the
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: state of Florida, state of Alaska, or the state of Iowa.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: So yeah, there was a time that that mattered to voters,
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: that mattered to lawmakers, and that would be what state
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: you know, ultimately right, it is state.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: This is why having the state legislatures in charge of
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: designing the lines, you would think this would come into there,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: you know. And it used to be states actually wanted
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: to keep to make sure they had seniority, had some
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: member of Congress either in the center of the House
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: that had enough seniority that whichever party was in charge
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: of Washington at a given time, they had some influence.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: Parties cared about having that right. That's why you had
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 1: for the longest time one D and one R senator
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: from iole Right, Harken, and Grassly they serve together. It
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: seemed like forever, at least a good twenty plus years,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: South Dakota had this where there was this hope, you know.
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: Essentially Montana was big with this, so particularly smaller states
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: over time value having that. So anyway, your instinct is
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: spot on on this. Like, like I said, Texas is
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: not the best example because of your partisan state, but
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: you're a big state. You end up getting You end
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: up just by sheer numbers. You end up having somebody
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: in a leadership position that can truly directly impact, right,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: And if you don't, if you're not on leadership, you
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: may be on the most important committees, right, or be
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: chair of the most important committees. I think a Texan
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: has been in charge of the Ways and Means Committee
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: off and on think four different times this century. So
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: so you know, anyway, the point is yes, in general,
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: just wrong exam. I would just pick a different state.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: You know they take in Oklahoma, right, They're going to
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: have a harder time unless they you know, or Wyoming
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: has a member of leadership on the Republican side that
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: helps them. But she get my drift on that. Next
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: question comes from Adam B. Davey, Florida suburb in Broward County.
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 2: For those of you.
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: Wondering, Hey, Chuck, could the Trump administration try to trigger
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: NATO's Article five over Iran, either to pressure allies to
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: join the conflict or to highlight NATO's limits if they refuse,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: or does the administration ultimately know the US still needs
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: its European allies for logistics and defense. Ps I quit
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: watching college football. With the breakup of the Big East,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: my native West Virginia University was left playing a bunch
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: of games out in Texas and the prairie lands. We
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: don't belong there. Well, I'm gonna get to that in
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: a minute, Adam, because I West Virginia's I agree that
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: they've been uniquely screwed in all this uh, in the
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: in the expansion and the realignment and all of that
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: in West Virginia because it doesn't have a large media
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: market that instantaneously means money is sort of you know,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: mess things up. But anyway, but let me answer your
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: first question. No, I mean, look at how instead of
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: using NATO, looks like Trump's using trade deals. Right, he
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: got Spain to climb on board after doing some threats
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: on trade deals. Now here's another what if Turkey triggers
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: Article five?
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: You know, a Turkey ended up shooting down some sort
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: of Iranian I think missile that was coming into its airspace.
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: And Turkey is a member of NATO, so maybe they
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: end up triggering Article five, which does this. And my
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: guess is to be a bit cynical about how this
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: would work. If I were in Trump's shoes, I wouldn't
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: want to trigger NATO, but I would maybe if I
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: wanted that, I would trigger. I would let Turkey trigger it.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: But no, I mean, you know, it's interesting. In a
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: sidebar story I've been following all this week is the
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: fascinating debate inside the UK Parliament because Keir Starmer, the
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Prime Minister, has not come out wholeheartedly supportive of American action,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: which is so unusual. The UK is always sort of
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: right behind us whatever we do, right the so called
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: special relationship not there this time.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 2: That is, you know it. The debate in different European capitals.
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: About what we're doing in Iran is I think going
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: to increase and get intense. I if Trump really wanted
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: to cause a problem within NATO, he could do this,
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: but I you know, I don't.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 2: We weren't attacked first, right, not even sure it would
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 2: it would.
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: Qualify on that front, you know, with West Virginia when.
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 2: I when I moved to.
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: D C for college in nineteen nineteen, this is still
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: the you know, still the heart of the the of
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: Miami's you know, prominence in college football. The one thing
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: I was excited about about being in d C going
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: to GW one was Geneman football team, so I didn't
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: have to feel guilty about rooting for Miami football.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: Two.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: Being in the Big East, I realized I was a
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: road trip away from Rutgers, a road trip from Temple,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: road trip from West Virginia.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: Road trip. Actually the longest road trip was Virginia Tech.
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: And I did all of those, by the way, and
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: I will confess probably the most unfriendly place I went
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: to was Morgantown.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: You'll probably laugh at that. I was at the infamous
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 2: game where they rocked the endmbulance.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: And if you say you haven't watched since the Big
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: East stage, you know exactly The game I'm talking about
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: was in nineteen ninety three. I think it was the
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: year you guys played Notre Dame in the national title game.
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: I think I think this is the major Harris team.
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: I hope I have my dates right on that, but
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: I remember that game. I'm sitting in the stands. We
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: need Boston College to upset Notre Dame for Miami to
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 1: sort of have a chance back into the title game,
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: and it happens, and somehow Boston College upsets Notre Dame.
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: They announce it in the stands, and what does Miami do.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: We lay the damn egg and we lose to you
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: guys in that game. But that was that was the
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: one time. I guess I'm glad I was there when
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: you guys won. And it might have been worse, but
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: I wore all my Miami gear on top of regular clothes,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: so I literally the second I was leaving the stadium,
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: I shed it and just played neutral arbiter the rest
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: of the way. But I say that because you know,
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: West Virginia is a great, proud football program. They love
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: their their team there, they love and they belong in
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: a major conference. They should be in the same conference
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: as Pitt. You know, look the Big East. I you
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: want to talk about a butter, I like to do
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: what IF's. I'll give you a what if. What if
• 1:11:30
  Speaker 1: Penn State doesn't go to the Big Ten and instead
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: Penn State joins the Big East the same year Miami
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: joins the Big East and Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, Syracuse,
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: and Boston College essentially are the North Division of the
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: Big East in Miami, Louisville, maybe Virginia Tech. I believe
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: at that time South Carolina was up for grabs and
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: they were an independent that still could have been brought in.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: And maybe we convinced Florida State. And I know in
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 1: the eighties and the mid eighties, when Florida State and
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: Miami were independent and Penn State was independent, there was
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: talk of a North South conference. The Big East was
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 1: just a basketball conference. At some point the Big East decided, well,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: maybe we don't want to lose our football school, so
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: maybe we'll do this weird hybrid that they did right
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: where they had these basketball schools like Georgetown Villanova, but
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: then they also had the schools like Syracuse and BC
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: who also wanted football, and they were worried about losing
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: all of that, and so they created this hybrid. They
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: convinced Miami to get in and all that stuff. A
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: different scenario.
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 2: Could have been could have been.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: If Penn State had been the other anchor there. Right
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: then you had big, two big programs in Penn State
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: and Miami, and then everybody else sort of could ride
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: that wave and essentially be sort of on the same level. Look,
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not try to disrespect West Virginia here, but you know,
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: both Miami Penn State probably slightly bigger national brands than
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: West Virginia, by the way, who was in the same
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: conference for basketball with GW for most of the nineties.
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: And I remember, you want to talk about a tough
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: place to play, not only in football, playing in that
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: arena in Morgantown was a tough place to play it.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: In fact, I remember sitting in the nosebleeds and it
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: was one of those where your knee was above the
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: head of the person in front of you. But it
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: was a great environment, really concentrated the noise. I think
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: to this day, West Virginia is still a tough place
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: to win on the road in that arena. But you know,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: we could have had a conference that made some geographic sense,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: you know, And who knows then if you had the
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: big East ACC merger and Penn State and Miami and
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: Florida State and Clemson and Virginia Tech, and but you
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: have that Penn State brand in there too. You know,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: there may be it may be that there are that
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: the that the that that ACC is truly a power
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: conference just as up and down, just as just as
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: powerful as as the Big Ten and and certainly comparable
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: to the SEC. But you know, it is one of
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: those where one decision by Penn State ended up impacting
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: what seventy other football programs, right, because remember they they
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: sort of broke the seal here and when they went
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: then it was you know, it went down from there.
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: But hey, you know what it's I know the Big
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: twelve is geographically a mess. It's a good commissioner. It
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: does give West Virginia fighting chance to be to be
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 1: relevant both in football and basketball. So come on back,
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: all right. Next question comes from Kelly X in Aubrey, Texas.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: Hey check, I'm a transgender woman in Texas, and with
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: the Republican runoff elections for Senate and Attorney General approaching,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: I'm concerned that candidates like Ken Paxton and Chiproy may
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: move even further right on transgender issues to win over
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: cultural war voters. Both have already made opposition to gender
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: ideology a major part of their political messaging. Do you
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: think one or both of them might use their current
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: positions to push even more aggressive policies or rhetoric on
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: transgender rights from the runoff and could that pressure other
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: Republicans follow their lead.
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 2: Well, Kelly, I wouldn't. I don't think it's going to
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: be in.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: The runoff that that becomes an issue. I think that
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: something that is more likely in the general election. I've
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: seen already some Republicans resurface a quote from Tallarico who
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: called who at one time, I guess, referred to God
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: as non binary, which I think there's a number of
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: ways you could interpret that. You know, if you want
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: to interpret it with skepticism and weaponization, you can do that.
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 2: You want to interpret it.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 1: As his own another way of saying, you know, God
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: is genderless, meaning you know, if you know, to women,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: maybe God's a woman. To men, maybe God's a man.
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: To those who's transgender, maybe he's transgender.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: The point is that I have the beholder type of mindset,
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: you know, when it comes to God, and everybody has
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: their own relationship to God, and I do not want
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: to pre presume any any any version of that is correct,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: right belief, faith is faith. On that front, I don't
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: I don't suspect it to be front and center in
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 1: the primary. I think I think it's all going to
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: be about who's who's who's more sufficiently pro Trump right,
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: I think it's a general election. I think that in
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: both cases you will see I think particularly if Paxson's nominee,
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: probably less so if Corn's a nominee. But I know
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: they want to make a big deal out of that quote,
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: and I think they think that it can it can
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: get misinterpreted, or you know, and all of that. So
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: I'm less convinced it's a salient primary issue because I
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: don't think that you're going to try to do an
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: issue that causes a wedge with the other candidate, And
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: I don't suspect that that's going to be the case.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 2: With me.
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: Perhaps more likely between Paxton and Cornyn, if he's trying
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: to make the case that Cornin is not sufficiently part
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: of MAGA. But I still think he would use guns
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: as a more effective wedge issue there than transgender rights.
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: But I'm not saying this to either reassure you about
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: the primary make you nervous about the general. But I
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: think you're more likely to see the scapegoat escape voting
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: and the attacks rise up during the general. Next question
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: comes from Staffaning, and she writes, Hey, my husband and
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: I both listen to your podcast, and despite our very
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: different political views. We find your coverage balance and informative
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: right on. I need you guys to become my marketing team.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: Husband and wife marketing team. Our oldest son is eighteen
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: and has declared that voting is useless. I have a
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: friend who's had a similar conversation with their I think
• 1:18:46
  Speaker 1: he's now nineteen, but it was at eighteen. You continue
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: this breaks my civic minded heart. His entire awareness has
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: been shaped by Trump and he has no concept of
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: what America can be or should be. He was only
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: seven when Trump started campaigning for the first time, and
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: he doesn't underst and why things seem so outrageous to us.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: This is a conversation I've had with my own son, Stephanie,
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: who is also eighteen. How do we teach my son
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: in the entire generation of new voters that they matter
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: and what the constitution says without turning into the adults
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: from Charles Schultz's P.
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 2: That's wah wah wah, wah wah wah, thanks.
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 1: For your help, and then she says, PS, I'll throw
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: a gonatch your way since I'm desperate for any baseball
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: at this point, you are, and by the way, I'm
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: fired up I'm even though I'm tired, I know I'm
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: gonna start watching to the first game of the World
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: Baseball Classic, which I believe is in Tokyo, and I
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: think it's Chinese type against Team Japan. I'm looking forward
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: to it, which is Taiwan versus Japan. But I don't think,
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: I think, I don't think it starts to like ten
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: pm Eastern time, you know, which for me might as
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: well be one am Eastern time.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 2: Look, this is this is a real issue with.
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: Some young voters, the sort of this. They're not quite nihilists,
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: but they're just sort of like they haven't really seen
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: a functional democracy. So if you've never seen a functional democracy,
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: what is normal to you? You know, I think about
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: this all the time. I mean, I'm going to guess,
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: if you have a son who's eighteen, it means you
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: and I are about the same age.
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 2: And we grew up.
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: We grew up in an era where we you know,
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: America was winning. We won right, we won the Cold War.
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: We were right, democracy won the argument. It wasn't that
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: America won the argument. Democracy won the argument. So in
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: some ways, when we were coming of age at eighteen,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: we saw it as hey, we're winning. This democracy thing
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: is working. In fact, let's spread it, Let's get more.
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: All right, maybe China's next. Remember you know Tienman Square, right,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: we were, I mean I was as a first protest
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: I ever sort of launched as a high school student.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: I was a senior. I think during Tienaman Square, junior senior.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: I must have been a senior because I probably would't
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: done as a junior, but a senior, I was enough
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: of a leader that I get and I just you know,
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: I said, hey, let's all wear black arm brands and
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: solidarity with with the protesters at Tienaman Square. And you know,
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: I think I got one hundred people to do it.
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: And that was a high school of three thousands. So
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to sit here and say it was.
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 2: It was. I had a huge following.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: Well, we were coming of an age where where you know,
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: it seemed like the whole idea of democracy, that this
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: this this thing was working. You know, the twenty first
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: century has been a whole different story, right they've they've
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: we've had now two generations see a lot of dysfunction
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: more than function, And you know, I think it is difficult.
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 2: I think.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: I guess my best answer is to is to try
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: to showcase where local politics worked. You know, there's still
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: some local democracy that where you feel like you you know,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: voters taken action and then you know, you know, we
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: deal with it a different way. But I mean, when
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: you have a you know, I almost want every member
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: of Congress to read this question and hear this question
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: that you've written, because Congress being ineffective. Right, everything that
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: your son has learned about the Constitution, about checks and balances,
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: about the three branches of government haven't functioned the way
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: it's taught. And it's not because we're teaching it incorrectly.
• 1:22:49
  Speaker 1: It's because it doesn't function correctly. And you know, I
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: resist wanting to teach it. I teach a classic college
• 1:22:58
  Speaker 1: student called how Washington Work. And I think it's I've
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: never had a more challenging time trying to explain how
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: Washington works this year, because I'm like, we're the it's
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: changing dramatically and right now there's only the Washington works
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: with one one way currency and specifically green currency, and
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: that is what how Washington rolls these days. So you know,
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: this is this is why we need some better leaders.
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: But more importantly, this is why we need to do
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: some structural changes to the democracy, essentially to convince people
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: it still works. Not having to register by party, but
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: still being able to vote right. Getting rid of partisan primaries,
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: I think would.
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 2: Be a huge way. You've got to.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: If you want people to be good citizens, they've got
• 1:23:51
  Speaker 1: to know that their citizenship matters. And I think we've
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: not asked much of our citizenry. You know what if
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: we had a national service program where everybody had to
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: serve two years doing something for the country, doing something
• 1:24:06
  Speaker 1: for the for the for the you know, whether that's
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: serve in the military, whether that's serve in the Peace Corps,
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: whether that's.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 2: Serve in a local.
• 1:24:20
  Speaker 1: A local senior facility. I think there's a variety of
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: ways you could create mandatory national service that you know helped.
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: I think that would you know, first of all, it
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: would be an opportunity for people from different backgrounds to
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: serve together. Right, we know how well that is that
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: that works in the military. Imagine if you had that
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: in all sorts of ways, and it might sort of
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 1: restore store the belief that your vote counts or that
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: your vote matters. Can tell you this if you if
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: you live in a North Carolina State Senate District with
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 1: Phil Berger and it who's down two votes with all
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 1: the votes counted now and now they're waiting for provisionals.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: There are plenty of campaigns that prove every vote counts.
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: But the question I think your son is asking, is
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: your vote even worth it? And I think right now,
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 1: when we have such weak checks and balances in the
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: system that he's taught, that we live in isn't really
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: functioning the way he was taught. It's hard not it's
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: it's easy to understand why he's this, why he's become
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 1: this cynical about it.
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 2: My son's quite cynical as well.
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: I think there's a I just think there's a whole
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: generation that sees it this way. That said, my son
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 1: does gravitate to anybody young who's trying to run for office.
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: He's always whoever the younger person is, he gravitates to
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 1: that person. This was true in twenty twenty. He was
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: really interested and intrigued by Pete uh and and and that,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 1: and it was simply because he was the youngest candidate,
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: maybe a young leader, you know, whether whether you know,
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: might have been a Charlie Kirk or or James tol Rico,
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: or it could be.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 2: Somebody else.
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: You know, maybe it's a ants if he's still considered
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 1: young once you had forty you know, maybe there's some
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: some some faith there, or certainly a new outside young leader.
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 2: I might do it, but.
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: You know, until the government itself functions normal semi normally
• 1:26:46
  Speaker 1: it is it is, it's probably hard to make the case.
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: I would be remiss, you know, I wrapped up question
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: for that. I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge. Particularly
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: if you're listening to this on March fifth, right, I
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 1: drop on Thursdays. Thursday is March fifth. Some of you
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: might be listening on the sixth, seventh, or eighth. But
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 1: if you're listening on March fifth, and I'm mister three
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 1: oh five, as most of you know me and Pitbull,
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: we're mister three oh five. I'm a Miami native. I
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 1: am proud of that three oh five area code. But
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: I'm going to confess something I had never knew that
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 1: we Miamians had an official day on the calendar that
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: we celebrated. Apparently three five, as in March fifth, is
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: now three oh five Day or Miami Day. I am
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: apparently this became a thing in twenty fourteen. According to
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: our friends at the Internet, it started as a hashtag
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 1: three oh five day, sort of a fun thing and
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: involved into a community wide celebration, so it was the
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: digital the origin of this a Miami publicist. It started
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: in twenty twelve, a Miami publicist, Genuine Molina, launched a
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: social media campaign called three o five Cafacito and the
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: concept is that inspired by English tea time, Molina proposed
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: that three oh five pm, matching Miami's iconic area code,
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: should be the city's official daily coffee break capasito time,
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: and it was a way to unify Miami's diverse spanglish
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: culture around the ventanita tradition coffee window. So the idea
• 1:28:33
  Speaker 1: went viral so quickly that by twenty thirteen, then Mayor
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: Tomas Regulato officially proclaimed three h five pm as Miami's
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: official cafacito time. So it started as a time and
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: then it went to a day, and the first three
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: oh five day was celebrated on March fifth, twenty fourteen.
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 2: Three oh five.
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: So it's now turned into a community wide celebrations of
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: all things three oh five, not just Cuban coffee. But
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: Miami's music, Miami Base and freestyle art, the Windwood Murals,
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: local small businesses. There's now three oh five block parties.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: So man, I feel like a moron.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 2: I miss this.
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 1: I am sorry I missed. This is what happens you
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: don't live in Miami anymore. And you know, I'm gonna
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: bug my daughter all day on three oh five to say, hey,
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: is this the Have you guys ever celebrated three oh
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 1: five day? And three oh five? And I say this
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: because I am a member of my family who was
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: born on May the fourth be with you, And I
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: will just say this member of my family is not
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 1: thrilled that they have to share their birthday with Star
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: Wars Day. So I am, I am, I am. I
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: will see how much I bug some of my relatives
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: about this. Who happened to live in Miami on three
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: oh five day?
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 2: But I am.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like a bad Miami native for not knowing
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: and not fully embracing.
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 2: And I'll just you know, I'm.
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: First of all, I love three h five cafacito time.
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: For me, it is always capuscito time. I constantly am
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 1: drinking coffee. So it's a if, the if, the hour
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: of the day ends in a PM or an am.
• 1:30:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's coffee time.
• 1:30:23
  Speaker 1: But regardless, I will no longer ever look at March
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 1: fifth the same ever again, because I am not turning
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 1: in my Miami credentials for blowing this. Instead, I'm hopping
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: on this bandwagon and I am embracing so happy three
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 1: oh five day. Let's go go, Let's go find go,
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: find a Cathasito somewhere where you live to celebrate three
• 1:30:45
  Speaker 1: oh five day, and with that, enjoy your weekend. I'll
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: see in about seventy two hours.