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Episode One Hundred Ninety One: Tipping Point · The Death Of Journalism

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number one hundred and ninety of the
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  Speaker 1: Depth of Journalism podcast. My name is John Zigler. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host on today's show. There's another apparent assassination attempt
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  Speaker 1: on Donald Trump, and non Trump fans seem to be
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  Speaker 1: completely unphased. Meanwhile, the Maga wright has completely lost their
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  Speaker 1: minds over multiple crazy conspiracy theories, Trump finally tries to
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  Speaker 1: make California a major issue, sort of, and more developments
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: in the looming death of tackle football. We begin this
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  Speaker 1: episode of the podcast with news of a second apparent
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  Speaker 1: assassination attempt against Donald Trump, this time in Florida at
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  Speaker 1: a Trump golf course where Trump was playing golf. Now,
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  Speaker 1: before I get into the issue of the attempt at assassination,
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  Speaker 1: the number one question here outside of the assassination attempt itself,
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  Speaker 1: should obviously be why is Donald Trump playing golf just
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  Speaker 1: less than a month before voting begins in earnest in
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  Speaker 1: most states? What is he doing? And this was not
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  Speaker 1: a one off. This has been a consistent theme in
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  Speaker 1: his schedule where he is clearly not nearly as engaged
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  Speaker 1: or energized as he was, for instance in twenty sixteen.
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  Speaker 1: So that's a question I'd love to hear answered. I
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  Speaker 1: doubt anyone will get an answer to that question. But
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump should not be playing golf in Florida, a
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  Speaker 1: state which he should win easily, although some polls have
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  Speaker 1: indicated is a little closer than it should be. But
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  Speaker 1: the idea that Trump is playing golf post Labor Day
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  Speaker 1: is absolutely absurd. Now, with that said, the profile of
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  Speaker 1: this would be assassin. And in case you someone haven't heard,
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  Speaker 1: he was hiding out on Trump's golf course or adjacent
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  Speaker 1: to Trump's golf course by the way. As a golfer,
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  Speaker 1: I've always thought that it's probably the most dangerous place
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  Speaker 1: for a president to be on a golf course, because
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  Speaker 1: it's got to be exceedingly difficult to secure a golf
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  Speaker 1: course from a would be assassin. And it certainly appears
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  Speaker 1: as if this situation was an example of that. But
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  Speaker 1: it also appears as if the Secret Service did a
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  Speaker 1: really good job because they had somebody scouting the whole
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  Speaker 1: ahead of Trump. They saw the gun, they pursued the guy,
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  Speaker 1: he dropped the gun, he ran, and then they had
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  Speaker 1: their drone technology helped them track him down. He was apprehended,
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  Speaker 1: apparently without being harmed. And so no shots were fired
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  Speaker 1: at Trump. There was no actual assassination attempt and obviously
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  Speaker 1: no assassination. And we have this guy alive, which could
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  Speaker 1: be interesting because his profile is rather strange for an
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  Speaker 1: attempted assassin of Donald Trump. It appears it's a very
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  Speaker 1: fine line, very fine line, beteing someone who's just fickle
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  Speaker 1: and went through a not totally irrational political evolution and
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  Speaker 1: someone who's just fucking crazy. Now, when you're arrested for
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  Speaker 1: having ploted the assassination of the Republican presidential nominee and
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  Speaker 1: former president, you got a side with fucking crazy, right,
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that's the default position. But his political evolution
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  Speaker 1: is very, very bizarre. It is made for cherry picking,
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  Speaker 1: and both sides on the left and the right have
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  Speaker 1: cherry picked his political background. He was, apparently, it seems,
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  Speaker 1: based upon his social media posts, a Trump supporter in
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  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, then he flipped away from Trump, was a
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  Speaker 1: Tulci Gabbard supporter, was a Biden supporter. Then in twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty four he was hoping to see Nikki Haley and
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  Speaker 1: paved Ramaswami on the same ticket together. You know, he'd
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  Speaker 1: he bought into the democracy is under threat narrative, and
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  Speaker 1: the Trump fans have latched onto that is. See see
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  Speaker 1: this is what provoked a Democrats provoked this assassination attempt
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  Speaker 1: because they have been feeding America this line that Trump
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  Speaker 1: is a threat to democracy. Maybe we don't know. I'd
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  Speaker 1: be curious to see what this guy's motivations really were.
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  Speaker 1: But he was all over the map politically in fact.
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  Speaker 1: But the only major figure in recent political times that
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  Speaker 1: I don't have I haven't seen any evidence that he
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  Speaker 1: supported was Ron DeSantis. So that's got to make DeSantis
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  Speaker 1: feel pretty good about this whole situation. And DeSantis himself,
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  Speaker 1: since this happened in Florida, has announced that he is
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  Speaker 1: opening a state investigation into what occurred. But thankfully nobody
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  Speaker 1: was harmed. Trump was not shot at This, of course,
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  Speaker 1: was a huge news story, although it was a news
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  Speaker 1: story that was very muted, especially in comparison to the
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  Speaker 1: assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, where obviously you had video
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  Speaker 1: and Trump's iconic heroic reaction and blood, and you had
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  Speaker 1: a bystander killed and others seriously wounded. So it's a
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  Speaker 1: completely different situation. You cannot compare the two with regard
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  Speaker 1: to how the media would respond to them. However, the
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  Speaker 1: responses have been incredibly starved. And I don't know if
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  Speaker 1: our desensitization, whether or not it's were deeper into the
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  Speaker 1: presidential election, and the media is more invested in Harris
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  Speaker 1: now than they were in Biden. Maybe it's a a
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  Speaker 1: whole series of issues. But the media the reaction to
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  Speaker 1: this was quite stunning, especially Lester Hull from NBC, the
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  Speaker 1: news anchor from NBC. He said something to lead off
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  Speaker 1: the newscast that was really extraordinary and outraged understandably a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people because he immediately seemed to blame Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump and JD. Vance for the attempted assassination. That's not
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  Speaker 1: an exaggeration. He connected the rhetoric of the campaign, which
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  Speaker 1: he blamed Trump and Vance for, which is right there absurd.
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  Speaker 1: The entire Democratic Party theme is indeed, democracy is on
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  Speaker 1: the ballot. Trump is a threat to democracy. Is the
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  Speaker 1: worst thing that's ever happened, by the way. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you can rationally argue those things, but you can't claim
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  Speaker 1: that those aren't words that could provokes somebody into doing
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  Speaker 1: something crazy. And we don't know whether that was what
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  Speaker 1: motivated this guy. But you can't claim that somehow Democrats
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  Speaker 1: are innocent here on the rhetoric issue. But lester Holt
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  Speaker 1: went off the rails and this clip went viral on
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  Speaker 1: Twitter for understandable reasons. As lester Holt really he doesn't
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  Speaker 1: have much hair, but he let his hair down on
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  Speaker 1: account when it came to anti Trump bias with this
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  Speaker 1: intro to the NBC Nightly News.
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  Speaker 2: Today's a parent assassination attempt comes amide increasingly fierce rhetoric
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  Speaker 2: on the campaign trail itself. Mister Trump is running made
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  Speaker 2: jd Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants
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  Speaker 2: in Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: That's just crazy. I mean that to me is a
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  Speaker 1: classic example of one of the fundamental problems in the
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  Speaker 1: mainstream news media that I talk a lot about, but
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  Speaker 1: probably not enough, because I don't know that I've made
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  Speaker 1: this point as clear as I should have on the
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  Speaker 1: death of journalism podcasts. Part of the reason why that
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  Speaker 1: never would have happened ten to twenty years ago. Never,
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  Speaker 1: it's not just because journalism is dead. Because lester Holt's
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  Speaker 1: been around a long time. He has lots of institutional
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  Speaker 1: memory about the way things used to be and the
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  Speaker 1: way things should be. But here's what has changed. The
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  Speaker 1: incentive structure has changed. There are no Trump fans watching
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  Speaker 1: the NBC Nightly News on a regular basis. None. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the Lester Holts of the world have no concerns about
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  Speaker 1: offending Trump fans. They're only trying to please their core audience,
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  Speaker 1: which is old liberals. That's there, what's left of their
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  Speaker 1: core audience. Twenty thirty years ago, the mainstream networks had
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  Speaker 1: to appeal to conservatives because they were still a very
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  Speaker 1: significant part of their audience. This is why I am
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  Speaker 1: probably the only conservative in the world who strongly believes
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  Speaker 1: that the conservative media, of the advent of the conservative media,
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  Speaker 1: is the worst thing that's ever happened in the modern
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  Speaker 1: history of the Republican Party. And if you chart the
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  Speaker 1: election results, especially at the presidential level, it's very very obvious. Well,
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  Speaker 1: this is a big part of the reason the mainstream
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  Speaker 1: news media has no incentive anymore to keep from offending
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  Speaker 1: or saying things that would upset conservatives because they're not
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  Speaker 1: part of their audience. I think that played a role
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  Speaker 1: in the ABC debate. David Muir, who has the same
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  Speaker 1: role at ABC that Lesterholt has an NBC David Muir
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  Speaker 1: doesn't care about offending Trump fans. They're not a significant
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  Speaker 1: part of his base audience. So I guarantee you his
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  Speaker 1: ratings post debate where he was incredibly biased towards Harris
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  Speaker 1: are not going to be harmed. His audience is pleased
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  Speaker 1: with him and his performance to try to take down
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump and prop up Kamala Harris. So that is
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  Speaker 1: part of why Lester Holt can feel comfortable and people
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  Speaker 1: around him can feel comfortable with him saying something that's
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  Speaker 1: completely looney tunes, especially especially the night that there was
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  Speaker 1: a second assassination attempt against the Republican presidential nominee. Can
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  Speaker 1: you imagine for a second, for a second, if there
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  Speaker 1: had been a similar situation involving Harris, no shots fired,
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  Speaker 1: nobody killed, Harris, never really in danger. This would have
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  Speaker 1: been a much bigger story and it would have been
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  Speaker 1: portrayed in a much different way, and I guarantee it
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  Speaker 1: would have been immediately labeled a maga effort, a racist effort,
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  Speaker 1: a misogynistic effort. It would have been night and day
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  Speaker 1: the way that the news media would have portrayed the
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  Speaker 1: exact same circumstances surrounding Harris. But that doesn't mean that
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  Speaker 1: the right wing and especially the right wing MAGA influencers
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  Speaker 1: on Twitter, don't deserve a lot of criticism for how
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  Speaker 1: they have reacted. The conspiracy theories now are off the rails.
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  Speaker 1: They're off the rails. I mean, they're always off the rails.
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  Speaker 1: And I have to say this episode. Preparing for this
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  Speaker 1: episode of the podcast was particularly exhausting. It's always exhausting
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  Speaker 1: to some level, but it was particularly exhausting because I
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  Speaker 1: feel like I'm the only I guess you would call
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  Speaker 1: me a conservative influencer. I don't know. I have no
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  Speaker 1: idea what I'm called at this point, but I'm the
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  Speaker 1: only guy that is willing to stand up and say
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  Speaker 1: these conspiracy theories are crazy. They're incredibly popular among right
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  Speaker 1: wing audiences, especially on Twitter. Sometimes even Elon Musk will
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  Speaker 1: amplify them, which is just nuts and crazy and depressing
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  Speaker 1: as hell, and they're all over the place. When it
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  Speaker 1: comes to this second sassination attempt against Donald Trump, there's
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  Speaker 1: the Blackrock conspiracy because the first assassin appeared in a
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  Speaker 1: video that was related to Blackrock, and because Blackrock, you know,
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  Speaker 1: is pro Ukraine apparently, and this guy was pro Ukraine,
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  Speaker 1: that's the connection between the two, and that Blackrock was
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  Speaker 1: responsible for this. As a matter of fact, that I'm
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  Speaker 1: taping this. The word Blackrock, the Blackrock Company Corporation is
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  Speaker 1: one of the top trending items on Twitter. And the
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  Speaker 1: theory is that somehow therebyd both assassination attempts. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: that makes no goddamn sense. There's no real connection to
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  Speaker 1: Blackrock with this particular assassin the second one. And can
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  Speaker 1: someone please at least mention or acknowledge that if somehow
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  Speaker 1: Blackrock was involved in both of these episodes, they are
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  Speaker 1: really really fucking bad at assassinations, really bad. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: if there's supposed to be all powerful and how are
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  Speaker 1: they so terrible in assassinations. The same thing goes for
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  Speaker 1: those that are claiming the CIA is behind us major
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  Speaker 1: MAGA influencers claiming the CIA is behind these assassination attempts
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  Speaker 1: or the FBI, Well, my god, if true, the CIA
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  Speaker 1: and the FBI have now fallen to Barney Fife levels
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  Speaker 1: of incompetence because these were two very very very badly
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  Speaker 1: botched assassination attempts against Donald Trump. It's just nuts, it's crazy.
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  Speaker 1: There's no evidence or logic behind it. There's no remote
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  Speaker 1: intellectual consistency behind it. But these theories are incredibly popular.
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  Speaker 3: And they have an impact. They have an impact.
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  Speaker 1: On multiple levels because now in the social media era,
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  Speaker 1: other whack jobs see them, see how popular they are,
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  Speaker 1: how many views oo a particular tweet has promoting a
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  Speaker 1: batshit crazy conspiracy theory, and they think, wellsh I'm not alone,
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  Speaker 1: and you know there could be that many of us
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  Speaker 1: that would be wrong. We must be right. There's power
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  Speaker 1: and numbers. And then once they buy into one conspiracy theory.
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  Speaker 1: I say this all the time, it's so true.
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  Speaker 3: Once they buy into one conspiracy theory, the next conspiracy
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  Speaker 3: theory is.
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  Speaker 1: Even easier to be sold. And therefore the conspiracy theories
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  Speaker 1: get nuttier and nuttier and crazier and crazier because they're
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  Speaker 1: easier and easier to sell. I've always I've talked about
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  Speaker 1: that with regard to the JFK assassination all the time.
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  Speaker 1: If you believe, which did not happen, that the CIA
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  Speaker 1: killed JFK, it's a hell lot easier to believe all
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  Speaker 1: sorts of other things, like the moon landing was faked.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, ell of us is still alive. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: all sorts of other crazy bullshit these people believe, and
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  Speaker 1: one conspiracy begets another. It also, by the way, has
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  Speaker 1: an influence over the perception of Trump, which are going
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: to get to in just a bit. But I want
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  Speaker 1: to be fair and balanced because when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: the first assassination attempt against Trump and Butler PA a
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  Speaker 1: couple months ago, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat made a statement
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  Speaker 1: that was really quite startling, and frankly, I didn't think
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  Speaker 1: it got enough attention, especially even from the conspiracy nuts.
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  Speaker 1: Now I'm not suggesting that Blumenthal is being a conspiracy
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  Speaker 1: theorist here. I think it's very clear that Blumenthal is
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  Speaker 1: in the camp of Oh my god, the level of
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  Speaker 1: incompetence that surrounded the Butler security situation was off the rails.
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  Speaker 1: That's the way I interpreted it. But the way he
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  Speaker 1: said it was so dramatic. He announced that there will
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  Speaker 1: very soon be a report about the first assassination attempt
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  Speaker 1: that's going to basically shock all Americans. And I thought
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  Speaker 1: that there were some conspiracy theorists who jumped all over this,
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  Speaker 1: but this did not go as viral as I expected
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  Speaker 1: it to because I thought, oh, my gosh, these people
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  Speaker 1: are going to see this as the smoking gun that
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  Speaker 1: even a Democratic Senator is willing to admit that there's
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  Speaker 1: something really stinky going on here with regard to the
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  Speaker 1: first assassination attempt. And just for the record, here's what
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  Speaker 1: Blumenthal told reporters.
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  Speaker 4: I think the American people are going to be shocked, astonished,
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  Speaker 4: and called by what we will report to them about
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  Speaker 4: the failures by the Secret Service in this assassination attempt
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  Speaker 4: the former president. But I think they also ought to
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: be appalled and astonished by the failure of the Department
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  Speaker 4: of Homeland's Security to be more forthcoming, to be as
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  Speaker 4: candid and frank as it should be to them in
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  Speaker 4: terms of providing information. And we are going to absolutely
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  Speaker 4: insist on the truth, in the whole truth, in documents
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  Speaker 4: and testimony as members of the United States Senate, but
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  Speaker 4: also as citizens. What did you learn new today when
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  Speaker 4: you said I'm not going to go into what we
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: have learned in specifics, I'm giving you my reaction, and
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  Speaker 4: we will have a report very very soon that I
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  Speaker 4: think will absolutely shock the American people or should about
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  Speaker 4: the lapses and laves in the protection that was afforded
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  Speaker 4: that day and the breakdown and communication failure and responsibility.
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  Speaker 4: Is there a report coming today or tomorrow? Is that
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  Speaker 4: a report coming out tonight or tomorrow?
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  Speaker 1: No. Now, when I saw that, I was like, oh
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  Speaker 1: my gosh. I mean, for Bloomenthal to say that as
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  Speaker 1: dramatically as he did, this must really be crazy stuff.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, we already know. That's the part that's kind
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  Speaker 1: of scary. We already know that the level of incompetence
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: was off the charts. So what could we possibly learn
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  Speaker 1: that would make this worse? But it certainly sounds like
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: we're going to and in fairly short order. And then
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  Speaker 1: I also want to mention because I did not reference
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: this in the last episode of the podcast. I probably
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  Speaker 1: should have, but it kind of got lost, definitely got
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  Speaker 1: lost within all the debate coverage. And that was that,
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  Speaker 1: I believe was In the morning of the debate, Milania Trump,
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  Speaker 1: who has been very very quiet and very rarely does
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  Speaker 1: anything like this, put out a video statement where she
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  Speaker 1: was I think, even more conspiratorial than Richard Blumenthal, saying
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: that there's clearly more to this story. Now, more to
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: this story can mean anything you want, But she was
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  Speaker 1: referring to the first assassination attempt. Obviously the second one
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: hadn't occurred as of yet, and that was the first
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  Speaker 1: time that someone close to Trump that I'm aware of
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  Speaker 1: has gone down, at least in part, a path that
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: could be perceived as conspiratorial regarding that assassination attempt, And
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  Speaker 1: I have cited that as the ultimate evidence that you
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: can't get out of the batter's box on a conspiracy theory,
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: an inside job theory on the first Trump assassination attempt,
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  Speaker 1: unless somebody close to Trump is willing to say that
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  Speaker 1: that's what happened. Now, Malania did not do that, but
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  Speaker 1: she kind of put her toe in the water. So
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  Speaker 1: I will be very curious to see what Blumenthaw is
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  Speaker 1: referring to in whatever report is released. But I am not, not,
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  Speaker 1: at least not at this point, in any sort of
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: conspiracy camp or inside job camp when it comes to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: these efforts, these very poor, poorly executed efforts to try
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to assassinate Donald Trump. Now I've already referenced it, but
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: I want to come back and talk again about why
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: these things are relevant vis a VI Trump and this election,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: this second assassination attempt, and all these crazy MAGA theories
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: surrounding it, I think are dangerous, one because they're not
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: based in any facts or reality, but also because I
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: believe they will help promote the stolen election narrative for
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: if and when Trump loses. I really do believe that.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that was already gonna happen if Trump loses
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  Speaker 1: a remotely close election. It has already been set up.
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  Speaker 1: We went through it already in twenty twenty, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: the narrative has already been set. But with two assassination
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  Speaker 1: attempts and with all sorts of crazy conspiracies surrounding them,
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  Speaker 1: they're going to be millions, millions of people who will deeply,
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  Speaker 1: deeply believe that there is a deep state conspiracy to
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: keep Donald Trump out of the White House. They will
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  Speaker 1: connect either consciously or subconsciously, these two assassination attempts. And
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  Speaker 1: we are now reaching the point where this is a
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  Speaker 1: combustible situation where you have lots of people who are
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  Speaker 1: going to be morally certain, morally certain because of the
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  Speaker 1: two assassination attempts and all the indictments and the convictions
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  Speaker 1: and the impeachments and everything else, that this is all
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  Speaker 1: part of a conspiracy to take out Trump. And if
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: they're capable of doing that, even though they do it
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  Speaker 1: very very poorly when it comes to assassinations, apparently they're
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  Speaker 1: somehow capable of rigging or fixing an election against Trump,
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  Speaker 1: And so that is one of my greatest fears. There's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of different scenarios that would be deemed terrible
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  Speaker 1: out of this twenty twenty four election, but I've always
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: felt like that might be the worst. Where Trump loses
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: a fairly close election, Harris gets elected, the rigged election
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  Speaker 1: narrative takes hold, and who knows what's going to happen
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  Speaker 1: at that point. Not to mention it further Trump's ability
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: to maintain his presidential viability after losing twenty twenty four,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: this might be the thing that is the I don't know.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: There's so many things that are the worst elements of it,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: but to me, this is the part that will be
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the most frustrating, with two assassination attempts and then a
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: second rigged election against him, even though it goes against
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: all logic and common sense. If Trump is healthy, I
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: think that it increases the chances that he will be
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the presidential nominee again in twenty twenty eight, And I mean,
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: everything's the opposite of the way it should be in
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: this world. We're in an upside down world. But that's
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: where I see this going right now. I think that
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: is one of the most likely scenarios where you have
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: two large portion of the Republican base that has been
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: completely radicalized. They have been mind fucked. They have no
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: ability to perceive reality anymore. And we've seen it in
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: other stories that are gonna get to momentarily over the
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: last few days. They are mind fucked, and you therefore
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: rationality has no weight, no power whatsoever, and Trump becomes
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: an even larger and larger cult figure having survived a
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: second assassination attempt now, and so this is further creating
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a scenario that is not going to be good for
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: the country, that's for sure. Almost regardless of what the
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: results of the twenty twenty four election are. Now there
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: is one element of this attempted I guess you'd call
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: it assassination attend to even though there are no shots
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: fired at Trump, there were a couple elements of this
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: that were good for Trump. I don't think, by the way,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: this is gonna be good for Trump in the polling.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I don't think he's gonna get any bump at all.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: In fact, I think he may get a little bit
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: of a negative bump out of this because it's just
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: too much. There's just too much chaos surrounding this guy.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Let's try to get back to normalcy. You know, it's
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: not his fault, but really, do we want this? Do
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: we really want this? I mean, I don't know how
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: many people would fit in that category, but I think
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: there's probably more people that fit in that category who
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: were in the undecided camp. And I'm always talking about
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: those of the voters that matter, than there are people
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: who are just gonna be enraged by this and go,
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: oh my god, he's gonna They went after him twice.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: There's got to be a good reason why they're going
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: after him. This is the guy I want to be
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: our president. I just don't think there's gonna be that
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: many people in that camp. My guess is this is
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: not gonna have any impact at all in the polling
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: going forward. Hell, the very very dramatic first assassination attempt
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: had very little impact on the polling, partially because Biden
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: withdrew a week later. But I don't think this is
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: gonna have any impact on the polling whoever, and certainly
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: not in a positive direction for Trump. But Trump did
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: get a little bit of a break in that the
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: news of this second assassination attempt overshadowed two terrible stories
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: for Trump that were dominating the news cycle. The first
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: is that on the morning before he went out to
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: play golf and there was an assassin would be assassin
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: waiting for him, he posted on true social in all
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: capital letters with exclamation points, I hate Taylor Swift. I
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: hate Taylor Swift. Now, of all the things that Donald
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Trump could post, you know, if you had said, zig,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: what would be the worst thing that Trump could possibly
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: do on social media on that Sunday morning, If you'd
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: given me multiple choice, it would have been difficult to
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: find something worse than I hate Taylor Swift, all capital letters,
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: exclamation point, no, nothing else, just I hate Taylor Swift.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: What exactly is the thinking here? How does that help you?
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: How does that help you even a little bit to
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: further provoke Taylor Swift and the Swifties. First of all,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: it just makes you look weak. It looks you mean,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: you know, mean, you're going after a woman you hate her?
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Why because she didn't endorse you. She endorsed your opponents,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: so you hate her. You're giving her more power than
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: she probably even deserves. And I'm someone who thinks, I've
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: been saying for over a year that her endorsement is
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: actually going to have significance in this election. It's just
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: so crazy. I can't even wrap my mind around it.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, that is that is the act of a
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: deranged person. That is the act of a person that
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: doesn't even seemingly want to win. I go back to
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: what I've said a thousand times with regard to Trump.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: If Trump was a Democratic plant, which I'm not saying
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: he is, I don't think he is, though I wouldn't
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't bet everything on it. But if he was
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: a Democratic plant, what would he do differently? I mean,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: if the Democrats were running his campaign, they couldn't dream
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: of being so lucky as him posting I hate Taylor Swift,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: to keep it in the news cycle, to provoke swifties further,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: to give her more of the moral high ground, to
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: make himself look small, to also give off the impression
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: of desperation. Right, I mean, who the hell knows what
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: provoked that, but you could certainly rationally argue that he
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: just got so bad internal polling post Taylor Swift endorsement.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: He doesn't want to believe that that was because of
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: his poor debate performance, so he's blaming it on Taylor Swift.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, I have no way of knowing it. That's
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: how things went down. But that actually makes as much
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: sense as anything. But there's nothing good that comes to that. Nothing.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: It's flat out idiotic. It's imbecilic. You have to be
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: an imbecile to have done that. There's not even a
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: remote logical thinking or justification or motivation for why you
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: would do that if you were trying to win the election.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: But that's who Trump is, completely undisciplined, not smart, basically
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: a toddler. He's a toddler. He is intellectually emotionally a toddler.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: And that was the post of a toddler. I hate
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Taylor Swift. And on the Taylor Swift front, you know,
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: in the last episode we talked about her Instagram endorsement
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: of Kamala Harris. I did not realize and did not
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: put it all together that clearly this was all part
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: of a plan because the VMA Awards were the next night.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: She got I think seven awards, and she used that
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: platform to ask people to get registered to vote. So
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: she made her endorsement right after the debate, did so
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: early enough where it's still possible in many states to
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: register to vote. And now that the news story is
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: out there that she's endorsed Harris, every time she says
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: get out and vote, registered to vote, which is perfectly fine.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: You're allowed to get away with that, especially when your
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: tailor Swift wherever you go. That's perfectly fine because that
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: is deemed to not be overtly political, even though it
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: obviously is, especially when you've already endorsed very prominently Kamala Harris.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: But it's actually a brilliant evolution of this process. So,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: you know, you take off the wave of the debate,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: you endorse Harris. Next day, you're on the VMA's promoting
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: voter registration, which now is you know, code for go
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: vote for Kamala Harris. There is some indication CBS did
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: a story about this. It may be overblown because of
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the nature of the data, but there are some indications
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: that voter registrations spiked extraordinarily after the VMA Awards and
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: after the Tailor Swift endorsement. We won't know that for
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: sure for quite a while, but there's there's you know,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: it's basically like you know, relationship between clouds and rain.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Right now, all we know there's a lot more clouds,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: a lot more activity when it comes to the issue
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: of voter registration. But whether or not it's actually going
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: to result in new voters registering, we don't know for
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: sure yet, but there's indicatations that that's what's going to happen.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: So this Taylor Swift endorsement so far could not have
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: gone better for Kamala Harris, especially with the VMAs and
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: especially with Donald Trump then posting on Sunday, I hate
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: Taylor Swift. And then also this happened, or at least
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: I found out about it after we taped the last
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: episode of the podcast. Caitlin Clark liked Swift's Instagram post
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: endorsing Kamala Harris. Caitlin Clark now she was asked about this,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: and this was I thought this was fascinating and very
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: very telling about the state of American media and American politics.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: But Caitlin Clark was asked about this and she took
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: the out. Well, I was liking the fact that she
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: wants people to get out and vote. That was basically
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: her response. But Caitlyn Clark and I, you know, from
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: a pea standpoint, I have no idea what her politics are.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: And she's certainly a very popular figure within conservative circles
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: because she seems to have conservative values and she's an
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Iowa girl, and she's straight, she's got a boyfriend, and
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: she seems to exude conservative principles, and she's a hard
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: worker and she doesn't buy into the whole woke nature
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: of the WNBA. So she has become very popular in
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: conservative circles. And from her standpoint, it's a brilliant move
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: because she gets at least some plausible deniability that she
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: was just liking the Instagram post because of the promotion
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: of the idea of voting. But she also gets an
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: enormous amount of value from the side of the political
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: spectrum that had been skeptical of her, especially within the WNBA,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: because a large part of what Swift said was about LBGTQ,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: and obviously that's a big deal in the WNBA. So
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: she helps herself within the WNBA that she's on the team.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: She's you know, secretly on the team. Team Harris, and
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: people will understand, well, she can't go full bonte, she
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: can't go all out there for Harris because she'd have
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: too much to lose. But this allows her to thread
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: the needle. So from Caitlyn Clark's perspective, I think while
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: she may lose a few fans on the right, in
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: the fringe of very few, I think this was a
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: smart move for her. But in the bigger picture, I
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: was disappointed. I really was, because I thought there was
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: a chance that Caitlyn Clark could be a little bit
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: of an antidote to Taylor Swift culturally, and now here
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: she is aligning herself with Taylor Swift. But I also
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: think it's very telling about the nature of the culture
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: and the gravitational pull of our culture. Now we always knew,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: We've known this for a very long time, that, especially
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: among the elites in entertainment and sports media, there's a
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: huge gravitational pull to the liberal side. You want to
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: be part of the club. You don't want to be ostracized.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: This is a club that has a lot of perks.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: It's very lucrative. You know, you get to hang out
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: with all the cool people, all the famous people, and
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: so you know, liberals have a complete stranglehold over that
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: complete stranglehold. But even I was a little surprised that
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: the power of that, the gravitational pull, is so great
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: that it could even suck in Caitlin Clark to the
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: point where she likes Taylor Swift's Instagram post and that
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: becomes a major news story. And oh, by the way,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: and this happened way too fast for it to be connected.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: But there's a poll out where Trump is only at
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: forty seven percent and iow and only leading Harris by
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: four points, which if that poll is accurate, Trump is done.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: Trump is done. And you know, I have no idea
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: how influential Caitlin Clark liking an Instagram post from Taylor
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: Swipt and dorseing Kamala Harris will be. But it ain't
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: gonna help Trump in Iowa, that's for damn sure. I
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: know this sounds crazy to a lot of people who
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: think that all this is is meaningless. It is not meaningless.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: And I think the most significant part of this is
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: the gravitational force of the culture being so powerful that
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: even Caitlin Clark felt compelled to take part in this.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And I asked myself if that is the state of
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: our culture, how can Harris lose? This means you can't lose.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: But I'm just asking the question if the you know,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: if the gravitational poll or the you know whatever it is,
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: the black hole effect, whatever sucking her into this is
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: so strong that even Caitlin Clark feels like she needs
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: to be part of it. How does Trump wins? It's
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: hard for me to come up with a scenario, especially
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: given the state of the polling, which I'll get to momentarily.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: One last point on Taylor Swift. There was a really
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: kind of fascinating kumba ya Rodney King, can't we all
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: just get along? Moment at the Kansas City Chiefs game
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: against the Cincinnati Bengals. Stop me if you've heard this before,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: but the Kansas City Chiefs won a very close game
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: at home where they were helped by a couple of
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: officiating cups that just happened to dovetail with the self
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: interest of the National Football League. I'm not suggesting a conspiracy.
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying this is the way things tend to
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: work and the way they have for the Kansas City Chiefs.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: But this all ended up transpiring in this incredibly bizarre
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: situation that got very little attention. I mean no attention
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: on the broadcast because this is topic was way too hot,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: even for Jim Nance who's a conservative, and Tony Romo,
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: who's apparently a conservative. They weren't going to touch this,
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: and I saw no news stories about it. I mentioned
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: it on Twitter and people got a kick out of
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: it because I actually foreshadowed that we were going to
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: be in a very strange situation where Taylor we were
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: gonna get live video on television of Taylor Swift celebrating
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: a game winning field goal from Harrison Booker, who became
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: a pariah among the feminist left. People liked Taylor Swift
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: because of his controversial commencement address at a Catholic college
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: in the spring, and so I thought, wow, this is
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: going to be really interesting. And sure enough, Harrison Booker
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: got out there kick the long field goal, they win
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: the game. You know, the CBS cut to all the
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: right players, and you know they're just they're like, they
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: must have a rule where we gotta wait six seconds,
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: wait six seconds before we get to Taylor Swift. All right,
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: and three to one Taylor, and there's Taylor Swift in
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: the sweet, cheering, hugging all because Harrison Butker, who was
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: deemed by her people to be evil just a few
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: months ago, kicked the game winning field goal. So I guess,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: in the words of Rodney King, maybe we can all
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: get along, at least in a one moment in time
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: where Harrison Butker kicks the game winning field goal and
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: Taylor Swift is there to celebrate it. Now, there's another
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: story that the second assassination attempt of Trump at least
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: somewhat overshadowed temporarily, and that is this Haitian immigrants in Springfield,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: Ohio story.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: Now, I didn't get too deeply into this last episode
• 39:00
  Speaker 3: of the podcast, but I told you that I had
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: been looking at it like a lot of other people have.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: And this is the exhausting part. I can't stand it.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: There are people who will now message me people don't
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: even know, plus friends who will message me about almost
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: anything that seems like it might be bullshit, and they
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: expect me to be able to tell them definitively is
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: it bullshit or not bullshit? And it's exhausting because you
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: got to go through and investigate it, and I got
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: other things to do. And this is not really an
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: issue I'm all that interested in, and it's connected to Trump,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and am I going to be defending Trump or attacking
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Trump and his cult members anyway. In the last episode
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: of the podcast, I said, I believe this seems like
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: an urban legend. I wasn't sure, but it had all
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: the markings of an urban legend. This idea that Haitian
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: immigrants were stealing and eating like dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: Now there's no debate that hatient immigrants have overtaken Springfield, Ohio,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: and that should be a legitimate issue. But as usual,
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: Trump and his minions fuck it all up and they
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: go down a path that makes them seem like crazy people,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: because frankly, a lot of them are crazy people, and
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: they say things that are at best unsubstantiated and at
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: worst totally untrue, and even worse than that, maybe blatantly racist. Well,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: it sure appears as of this moment, while the Maga
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: morons will never accept this, that this was, in fact,
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: this entire story was mostly of not totally an urban legend.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: The original Facebook poster, now, right, there was one of
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: the reasons why I thought this has all the markings
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: of an urban legend because you have an unnamed or
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: unknown person posting about it on Facebook, and then you know,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: it makes its way, it matriculates its way to other
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: social media accounts, and then eventually someone that has a
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: large enough following reposts it and all of a sudden,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: it gains traction. Well, unless there is video that's very
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: reliable in the original post, you should be inherently suspicious
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: of it. And this original Facebook poster now says that
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: they had no direct evidence, no direct evidence that this
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: was actually happening.
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: This was basically stuff that she had heard, and now
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: she regrets making the Facebook post, And of course MAGA
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: is like, oh, she got forced by the main street
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: news media into, you know, repudiating her original post.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: No, no, she had no idea this is going to
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: blow up the way that it did. And you know,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: she seems like she she feels embarrassed now and she
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: wants people to know that she didn't base it on
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: any direct knowledge. So the original source of the story
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: has repudiated it. The governor of Ohio, Republican Mike DeWine,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: who I loathe, and I've explained in great detail why,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: for very very good reasons. I loathe Mike Dwine. He
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: has condemned the story in very stark terms. Now that
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't prove anything to me, because Mike DeWine is not trustworthy.
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: He's a rhino, he's a woos So you know, I
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: could foresee a scenario where he did this just to
• 42:37
  Speaker 3: virtue signal and to have the media like him, because
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: that's what happened during COVID.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: He was absolutely terrible during COVID. However, in the larger
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: picture of this story, I think Thewine is probably right.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: In fact, even jd Vance, the vice presidential nominee as
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: well as senator from Ohio, basically admit on CNN in
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: a very strange moment to making up stories in order
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: to get the news media to cover them. It's almost
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: a direct quote from jd Vance, and it appeared as
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: if he was referring to this Haitian immigrant in Springfield,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Ohio story. So there are all sorts of reasons not
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: to mention a lack of direct evidence to greatly doubt this.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: Sometimes the news media gets it right, folks. My God,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: I host the Depth of Journalism podcast. I'm as strong
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: a media critic as there is. But sometimes when the
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: media aroundly debunks or criticizes a story and says it's
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: not true. Sometimes they're right, even when it fits their
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: political self interest, which is clearly the case here because
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: it makes Trump look really, really bad. Unfortunately, the mind
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: of the out Trump supporter is so diseased and they
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: have such PTSD and have such understandable contempt for the
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: news media that anything, anything that any mainstream news media
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: organization says that does not fit their self interest is
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: automatically discarded and in fact often proof that their side
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: is right, because that's why they're attacking it. That's how
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: crazy we've gotten, that's how divided we are, that's how
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: little trust there is in the news media. And let
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: me be clear, the news media deserves a lot of
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: blame for that, a lot of blame for that. They
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: were wrong so many times, all in the same direction
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: that people not only lost trust, they presumed it's now
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: the knee jerk default position that the news media is
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: wrong and acting on behalf of Democrats. Well, sometimes that's
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: not the case. Sometimes they're just telling the truth, and
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: that appears to be what has happened here. But this
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: is the evolution of these conspiracy theories. So it gets
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: out there, Trump picks it up. This is one of
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: the most looney tunes element of this story. I mean,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: do you realize that, in the pre Trump era, getting
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: a presidential candidate to say something in a live television
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: presidential debate took an enormous amount of vetting. I mean,
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: people get married with less vetting than it used to
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: take to get any piece of information into a presidential debate.
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: And I'm not exaggerating. Well, in the Trump era, Trump
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: sees something on Fox News Channel or Newsmax, decides that
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: he likes it, and he throws it out there in
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: the what looks like the only presidential debate with Kamala
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Harris and starts to talk about they're eating dogs and
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: cats and these Haitian immigrants, and it's and it's it's
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: just ridiculous because it's not based in any reality. But
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: once Trump does that, now he has created a market.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: As insane as this sounds, he has created a market
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: for cat eating stories. I've talked about this all the
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: time when it came to Matt Drudge and the Drudge Report,
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: before the Drudge Report became largely irrelevant and totally left wing,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: when he was right wing and it was very very powerful.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: If you got a link from Drudge, you know, that
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: was huge for you. And if you knew that Drudge
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: was interested in a particular story, then you would give
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: him that type of story and you would get linked
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: and you'd get lots of traffic. And back in those days,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: traffic really mattered, and it was like gold. Drudge had
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: the ability to create a market for particular types of
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: stories because everyone could figure out immediately what he wanted. Well,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: it's the same thing now with Trump. Trump creates a
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: market for cat eating stories because one, there's an audience
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: for it that wants to be vindicated. In two, you know,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: there's a market for making Trump look like he wasn't lying.
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: So in steps a guy by named of Christopher Rufo,
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: a guy and this is why I'm mentioning this.
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: I actually like Christopher Rufo. He does a lot of
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: good work and conservative activist commentator, what have you. And
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: he posts a video that purports to justify or vindicate
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: the Haitian immigrants are eating cats in Ohio in Springfield,
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: Ohio story, because that's the story. Remember that's the story,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: Haitian immigrants Springfield, Ohio. They're eating pets, geese, ducks, cats, dogs, whatever.
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: So Rufo posts a video of some people cooking something
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: on a grill. Well, he acknowledges that the video is
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: from last year, that it's from Dayton, Ohio, not Springfield, Ohio,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: that the people involved are from Africa not Haiti. And oh,
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: by the way, there were multiple people who looked at
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: the video and said, I've done this before. Those aren't cats,
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: those are chickens being grilled. So other than that, Missus Lincoln,
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: how was the play a complete joke? This video from
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: a guy who I have in the past given a
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: significant amount of credibility to that video. As of this
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: taping has twenty six million in views. Twenty six million
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: views for complete and total bullshit. Even if it's not chickens,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: even if it's cats, it's completely irrelevant. And not only
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: is there no accountability, Ruffle got hugely rewarded. I'm sure
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: he's got more followers now he's gonna get paid whatever
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: from Twitter for a post that has twenty six million views.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: He probably did all sorts of media interviews in Magamedia
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: world over this. I mean, it's this is how broken
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: things are, totally broken. So the Haitian immigrant eating pet
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: story I think is largely, if not totally false. It
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: is almost certainly mostly, if not totally, an urban legend.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: It is embarrassing to the Trump campaign, but within Maga
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: world on social media, they still believe it. And if
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: you deny it, you're a cuck, you're a rhino. You're
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: in bed with the mainstream news media. And and this
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: is this is why we can't have nice things, because
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: because our side believes too many batshit crazy things. But
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: it doesn't stop there. No, that might not be the
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: craziest conspiracy theory or I don't know if you call
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: that a conspiracy theory, just a crazy theory about Haitian
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: immigrants and you know what's happening to pets in Springfield, Ohio.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: But this, this absolutely is a conspiracy theory involving the
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: ABC debate. So since Trump lost the debate, and it's
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: clear from all the polling that he did, just like
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: I told you, I told you the morning after when
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: when I taped the last episode of the podcast, Trump
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: had clearly lost the debate and it's gonna harm him
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: in the polls. Every single scientific polls indicated that the
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: majority of people who watched the debate thought that Trump lost,
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: so in order to explain the defeat or to you know,
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: somehow pretend that the you know, the system was rigged
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: against Trump and that's the only way he can lose, right,
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: he can never lose fair and square at anything. I mean,
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: that would actually be a great question for Donald Trump.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: Have you ever lost in anything fair and square ever
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: in your life? Boy? I would love to hear the
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: answer to that. I don't know what his response would be,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: but I can't ever remember him recall I can't recall
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: him ever saying yeah, I lost this fair and square.
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: But there's there's a market. You know, Trump loses, so
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: now there's a market for explanations or excuses for why
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: he lost. And the first is very rational that the
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: moderators were biased against him, and they absolutely positively were.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: I started last episode of the podcast with a detailed
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: explanation for exactly how that bias manifested itself in the debate.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: It was through topic selection, and it was obviously fact
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: checking Trump without fact checking Harris. And you know, it
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: was obvious. I mean everyone saw it with almost you know,
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: and even some liberals saw it. It was it was
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: very clear that the debate was biased towards Harris. None
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: of that was a surprise. Trump should have foreseen that.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: I've said that. I don't even think Trump should have
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: done the debate. I think he would have been better
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: off holding his ground after Harris took over the nomination
• 52:41
  Speaker 1: and the Biden coup and said, look, your nomination's not legitimate.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: I made a deal with Biden. I'm not making a
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: deal with you unless it's completely on my terms. He
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: had at least some level of moral high ground there,
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: and she needed a debate to prove that she was
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: presidential material. She had more to gain from it, in
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: my opinion, than Trump did. And I really don't think
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: that more. I think about it, the idea that somehow,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: well Trump couldn't do that because he's afraid of a girl.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: The guy had just been shot and you know, and
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: with blood streaming down his face, pumped his fist and
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: said fight, fight fight. He had just gone into the
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: lions Den and the Black Journalists Association. I just don't
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: think that was gonna stick. And so I think it
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: was a mistake, even the due to debab but everyone
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: acknowledges the moderators were biased. But it can't stop there,
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: because that's not enough to fully explain Donald Trump's loss.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Did you hear that Kamala Harris was wearing an earpiece
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: where someone was telling her what to say? Oh, yeah,
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: we know that's true because Donald Trump said it at
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: one of his rallies. Crazy, absolutely batshit crazy, no evidence,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: no logic of it, but that becomes part of MAGA lore.
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: And also Trump said, did you hear she got the
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: questions in advance?
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: Trump said that as well at a rally. He did
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: not mention, which kind of surprised me.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: The theory that a MAGA, very prominent MAGA pastor had
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: promoted on social media, which was that Harris won the
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: debate because she was practicing witchcraft witchcraft, not making it up.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: You can find it for yourself, witchcraft. So kudos for
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Donald Chou two too, Donald Trump for having the discipline
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: to not go down the witchcraft path. He must have thought, well,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: that's just too crazy. No, no, no, I'm gonna stick
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: with the earpiece and getting the questions in advance. Now,
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: the questions in advance element of this is the most
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: interesting part for a couple different reasons. Number one, this
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: goes to my premise to when you buy into one
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theory or one false story, it makes it easier
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: to sell the next one. And I've referenced this recently
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: on the podcast. But this questions in advanced narrative has
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: a very fertile ground on which to sew within magaworld,
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: because Trump has, I don't know, on dozens and dozens
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: of occasions since twenty sixteen, fed his cult like base
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: with the story that Donna Brazil Democratic Operative had given
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton the questions before a debate or their debate.
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know how he phrases it exactly. I don't
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: he makes a their debate, but he clearly leaves the
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: impression that Hillary Clinton got the questions for a debate
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: with him, which now would explain why Hillary kicked his
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: ass three times based upon the scientific data in the
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: aftermath of each of those debates. And so that's why
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: it still bothers Trump, because Trump knows that in the
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: polls he lost all three debates, so he needs an excuse,
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: and so he throws out there the Donna Brazil story
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: all the time, to the point where I guarantee you,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: I guarantee you that most super Maga Trump fans truly
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: believe that Donna Brazil gave Hillary Clinton the questions before
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: a debate with Donald Trump. That did not happen. That
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: did not happen. Now it's possible that Trump has never
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: said that that's what happened. He's just allowed his base
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: to come to their own conclusions because he knows them
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: very very well. What happened was and this was wrong.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: I'm not defending it. But in twenty sixteen, during the
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: Democratic primaries, not the general election, the Democratic primaries, Hillary
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: Clinton was doing a solo town hall on CNN, and
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Donna Brazil, and I'm pretty sure this is right, gave
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: her some of the topics for the town hall, which
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: is basically a glorified interview in front of a crowd
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: that's one on one CNN and Hillary Clinton. It's not
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: even technically a debate. And Donna Brazil was working at
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: CNN at the time. Now, it was totally wrong, and
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: she it was found out through emails, and Brazil apologized
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: and I think she was punished in some way, and
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: it was a complete breach of journalistic ethics one hundred percent.
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: But it's nowhere near it's apples and oranges to the
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: idea that ABC gave Kamala Harris the questions before this debate.
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: By the way, before I get further deep, you know, deeper,
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: more deeply into this story, let's just be clear.
• 58:15
  Speaker 3: Figuring out what the questions for this debate was going
• 58:19
  Speaker 3: to be is not very difficult at all.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, there was there were no surprise questions. There
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: were thirteen different topics, as I outlined in the last
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: episode of the podcast, and if you'd asked me, I
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: probably would have been able to predict at least eleven
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: of the thirteen, and I might have gone thirteen for thirteen.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: There was not one that would have surprised me. In fact,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the only one that mildly surprised me was they asked
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: her about her flip flop on fracking. That was That
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: was because that was a little bit more negative of
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: a Harris question than I expected. But they put that
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: one up front to try to make it look like
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: they weren't totally in the bag for Harris. So the
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: idea that, you know, because there are no such things
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: as questions in these debates anymore, no one answers a question,
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: especially not Kamala Harris. You're never forced to answer a
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: question in a debate format where time is so limited
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: and they're never going to nail you to the wall. Now,
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: they tried to nail Trump to the wall a couple times,
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: but they never did so with Harris. So it's really
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: not even questions, it's just topics. So guessing what the
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: topics were would not have been difficult at all. But
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: this story got legs in the right wing social media
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: world because an anonymous Twitter feed posted that there was
• 59:39
  Speaker 1: an ABC whistleblower that had filed an Affidavid saying that
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: Harris had received the debate questions beforehand and had received
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: assurances that Trump would be fact checked but Harris would
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: not be checked. And then we're a couple of other
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: things that were alleged in this affidavit. Now, when this
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: first came down the pike, I'm like, oh my god,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: are people really gonna believe this based upon an anonymous
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 1: Twitter feed? And then it goes up, you know, the
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: food chain, It goes up the totem pole when it
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: comes to influencers. So you know, one semi credible person
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: shares it, and then a you know, a seemingly more
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: credible person with larger number of followers shares it and
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, you know, the big MAGA influencers,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: this is this is gold, this is too good to resist.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: I know, this is catnip. You know, not to make
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: a cat joke since we're killing cats in Springfield, Ohio,
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: but you know, this is catnip, this is clickbait, this
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: is you know, I can't resist this, so it's it's
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: credible enough for us, so we're gonna start sharing this
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: idea that there's an ABC whistleblower that has signed an
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: affidavit and Alfidavid is a very official sounding thing. Oh
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: my god, you know, under penalty of perjury. Just such bullshit,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: all such bullshit. But you know, ABC whistleblower Affidavid, that's
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: going to allege all these things happened. Folks, this is
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: why Trump lost the debate. It was all rigged. It
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: was all rigged. So Trump further fans the flames on
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: this at israelly. And you know, so this whistleblower story
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: is getting all sorts of traction in right wing social media.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: And the Affidavid did not materialize for a couple of days,
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: which of course needed an explanation.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 3: Right, Uh oh wait a minute, shouldn't take that long
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 3: for the for the Affidavid.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: To actually come to light. And you know, why wouldn't
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: the person make themselves known if they have such explosive
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: allegations and they allegedly are on the inside of ABC,
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: they're an ABC whistle blower, So why haven't we gotten
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: proof of this story yet? So then there was a
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 1: social media rumor that was shared by a MAGA Congresswoman
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Green that claimed that the source of the
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: Affidavid had been killed. Of course he's been killed. What
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: else would you expect? Of course he's been killed. Wow, shocker.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: A congresswoman shared this on social media that the source
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: of the affidavit had been killed. But then after the
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: the the he's been killed rumor started to get traction,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like by magic, the Affidavid quote
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: unquote appeared via the same anonymous Twitter account, and the
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: affidavit is heavily redacted. It gives no names, it gives
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: no position at ABC, there's nobody attached to it. There's
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: nothing behind it other than it's just looks like an
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: affidavit that's been heavily redacted. And my god, some theoretically
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: credible people started to share this thing. This was supposed
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: to before the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Yesterday,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: this was probably one of the most popular items on Twitter,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: and I'm thinking, oh my god, I cannot believe that
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: formerly credible people like billionaire Bill Ackman, a former liberal,
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: has turned into a trumper. Basically, I don't know if
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: he was a liberal, but it certainly wasn't perceived as
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: a conservative. He's been, you know, championing this affidavit cause
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: more than anybody, I had no idea that Bill Ackman
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: is a complete fucking moron. I mean, there's literally nothing
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: to this. Now there's a claim that the abbidet was
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: filed before the debate. I've not seen proof of that definitively,
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: and therefore, somehow that gives it more credibility. Look, if
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: this was real, If this was real, there would be
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: plenty of evidence for it. It makes no sense. Is
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: it possible that they would want to do this? Sure,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: but there's no risk reward ratio here because if it
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: gets found out, it's a massive scandal and there's very
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: little benefit. They didn't need to let Harrison on this,
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: They just did it on their own. Not to mention
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: if she really had all those advantages, she probably would
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: have done better in the debate. She didn't do that
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: great in the debate. So if she really had all
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: the questions and topics beforehand, and the knowledge and that
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: this is important, and the knowledge that she wasn't going
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: to be fact checked but Trump would be, she should
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: have done a helm a lot better than she did.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: And then my favorite part of this story is, and
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: Bill Ackman actually posted this on Twitter. You know why,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: as an ABC re responded to this allegation, the fact
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: that they haven't is an indication then it must be true.
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, you've gotta be fucking kidding me. If
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: ABC responded to this bullshit, you'd all be going aha, See,
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: this is a credible story. ABC was forced to respond,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: so they're literally in a no win situation. And then
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: this actually is when I say in then it's not
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: the right timeline. But part of what helped gain this
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: story traction was early on who jumped on it but
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: Mark Penn. Now Mark Penn is a guy who gets
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: labeled in conservative media as former Clinton polster, so therefore
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: that gives him credibility. Oh my gosh, this is a
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: democratic guy. On the inside of democratic politics. He's saying
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: that he thinks that this Appidavid story is credible and
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: so that you know, facilitates all sorts of right wing
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: media stories. Well, Mark Penn, first of all, hasn't been a.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 3: Clinton pollster, and I don't know how long, at least
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 3: a decade probably he's been living off of that ever
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 3: since then.
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: He was wrong about everything. He's basically I think I
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 1: tweeted Mark Penn was Dick Morris on vacation because he's
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: an intention whore who is desperately latching onto anything that
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: will give him any remote semblance of credibility and relevance.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: So the idea that he would attach himself to this
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: story so that his name gets out there is not
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: a surprise at all. But like Dick Morris, he's always.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 3: Wrong, so that that absolutely positively does nothing to enhance
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 3: the credibility of the story. In fact, that it does
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 3: the opposite, if you have any clue about the way
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 3: these things work.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if we're we're going to get
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: to the bottom of this Affidavid. I hope that we will.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that if we do, nobody in Magna world
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: is gonna go oops, sorry, we were fooled yet again.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: Are bad. That's never gonna happen. At best, they're just
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 1: gonna move on. In all likelihood, they're just gonna say no, no,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: we were right, because we're always right, and you know,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: to their defense, sometimes they happen right, like with regard
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: to Russia Gate and the twenty sixteen election results. So
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: they think that because for a couple of occasions they
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: have been right and they're never ever proven wrong because
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: their media will never tell them they were wrong because
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: it's not in a self interest to do. So, they
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: keep living in this delusional world and guess what happens
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: the next time they'll buy into another bullshit theory. It's
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: a never ending cycle and it's not helpful. It is
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: not helpful. So you know, in both these situations with
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: the Haitian immigrants and with the ABC debate, the Trump
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: side has to take in legitimate issues that should help them.
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: The town of Springfield, Ohio being inundated with Haitian immigrants
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: facilitated by the Biden administration, and ABC being blatantly biased
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: in the debate on Harris's side, those are both very
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: legitimate issues and they have somehow bastardized them into negative
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: topics for Trump, embarrassing on the issue of these pets
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: being eaten, and embarrassing on the topic of Harris wearing
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: earpieces and being given the questions beforehand. And it just
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: looks weak and it looks whiny, and it looks crazy,
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: and it's not at all helpful. So therein lies my
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: frustration with when I say the death of journalism, I
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: mean on all sides. The right wing media is at
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: least as broken as the left wing media, largely because
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: their incentive structure is even more perverse. And I'm convinced
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: by the way that the right wing media is perfectly
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: happy for Harris to win this election. They would love
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: for Harris to win this election, most of them, especially
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: if it was fairly close where they could claim the
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: election was rigged, it was stolen. They can whine about
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: that for as long as they won forever and ever.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: Plus they get Harris to beat around for the next
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: four to eight years, that's good for them content wise
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: and economically. The incentive structure is completely perverse, and that
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: is the essence of why journalism on the right and
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: the left are dead. As far as future debates. Trump
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: has made it very clear he is not going to
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: agree to a third debate, which I think is awfully telling.
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, Harris one of the third debate, I guess
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: you call it a third debate, a second debate between
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: Harris and Trump. Trump bailed on it. He not only
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: bailed on it on Fox News Channel, he actually turned
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: down a Five News hosted debate with Harris, saying he
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: didn't like Martha McCallum and Brett Baar to be the moderators.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: He wanted one of the right wing opinion hosts to
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: be the moderator. That just to me was incredibly weak,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: incredibly we are you delusional? As if you would ever
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 1: do an MSNBC debate hosted by Rachel Maddow. In no way,
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: shape or form would Trump ever do that. Harris would never,
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: nor should she do a debate with Sean Hannity as
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: the moderator. There's nothing wrong with Martha McCallum and Brett Bhar.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: You're gonna get a much fairer shake there than you
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: did on ABC. But Trump wants no part of it.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: I think largely.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 3: Because he realizes he got his ass kicked and he
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: doesn't want to get his ass kicked again.
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: He'd rather just have the excuses that we've already outlined,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: some legitimate with regard to ABC's bias, and some fantasy, like,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: for instance, the idea that the whole thing was rigged
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: on purpose beforehand on Harris's behalf. And I will probably
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: always believe that Trump made a major blunder with all
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: of these debates. He lost his leverage when he agreed
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: to anything with Harris, and he should never. I mean,
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: the worst scenario. The worst scenario is Harris only being
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: subjected to one debate. The best shot you have here
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: is for Harris to be exposed, and she wasn't really exposed,
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: not fully. In that first debate, Trump looked a lot
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: worse than she did. She stood up to him. She
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: was perceived as winning, not overwhelmingly, but significantly. So in
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: my view, there's much more of a benefit in theory
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: unless to lose in a third debate for Trump than
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: there is for Harris, because she's already accomplished what she wanted.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: She passed through the presidential threshold. She stood up to
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: a bully, you know, looked somewhat confident. She looked better
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: than Trump in a lot of ways. She's already checked
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: all the boxes. The only thing thing gonna happen in
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: the second debate is that she doesn't perform up to expectations,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: because now the expectations will be higher, and you know,
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: America starts to get tired of her, or or realize
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: that this, you know, isn't going to be good. She's
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: not up to this, and that's not going to happen
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: because there's not going to be a third debate because
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: for whatever reason, we're second debate because Trump doesn't want it.
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 1: So to me, Trump blundered this at every level, And
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: you could even argue he blundered the first debate by
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: agreeing to do it so early that when Biden crapped
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: his pants there was time enough to get rid of Biden.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: Now I didn't buy into that theory at the time.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: Now it looks like in retrospect there might have been
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: something to that. I still don't know exactly how that
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: would have worked, but it certainly appears with twenty hsight
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: that that was at least an option for the Democrats
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: that they were testing Biden out to see if you
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: can get through it. He couldn't get through it, so
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: they got rid of him.
• 1:13:10
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• 1:13:13
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