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Episode One Hundred Seventy: The Grand Delusion · The Death Of Journalism

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Welcome to episode number one hundred and seventy of the Death of Journalism Podcasts.
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My name is John Zigler. I'm your host on today's show. After the
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Biden Stephanopoulos interview extends the nightmare scenario for Democrats, Biden seemingly drops the mic
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on the Democratic coup supporters. Is there more evidence that Biden actually has Parkinson's
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disease? What is really going on behind the media freak out over Biden?
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And has the President survive the storm. Usually when I create the structure for
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any episode of the Death of Journalism podcast, I like to go in chronological
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order to review what has happened since the last episode. However, in this
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particular episode of the Death of Journalism podcast, I'm going to do things slightly
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differently because I want to start basically at the end and then work backwards to
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provide context to how how we got to where we currently are. And the
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reason why I want to do that is because there's been a what I believe
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to be a pretty major development that has happened on Monday morning just before we
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taped this episode of the podcast, and in the last episode of the podcast,
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I said that I thought that Joe Biden was still going to be the
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Democratic presidential nominee, but there was about a thirty percent chance that if everything
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went wrong over the next week or so, that he could on his own
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decide to drop out. Well, I think we have at least for now,
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barring a major and I mean major development, whether that's on the medical
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front or a disaster at a forthcoming press conference and scheduled for Thursday of this
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week, Barring either one of those circumstances, I think we have now effectively
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eliminated the idea of Joe Biden voluntarily withdrawing from the presidential race. Or I
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don't think there was every or any real chance he was going to voluntarily resign
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from the presidency. And the reason I've come to that conclusion is that Joe
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Biden released a letter early this morning, where as I referenced in the opening
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to the podcast, in my view, he basically dropped the mic on his
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critics and those that support a democratic coup. Now, I don't believe that
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he wrote the letter. I don't even know for one hundred percent that he
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understood the letter. I think he probably did, but the main point of
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the letter is I'm going to paraphrase. Hey, look, you can't get
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rid of me, because if you do, you have just destroyed the entire
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essence of the democratic narrative for this entire campaign, which is that we're the
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party of democracy. We already had a process in which I was selected as
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the nominee. I think I can still do this. I ain't going anywhere.
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You can't get rid of me otherwise. We're a bunch of complete and
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total hypocrites. And that's true. Now. We don't live in a world
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where consistency matters nearly as much as it used to. We don't live in
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a world where hypocrisy is as much of a mortal sin nearly as much as
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it used to be. But the degree to which this would be inconsistent and
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blatant hypocrisy, I think, really does make it nearly impossible for Joe Biden
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to be forced out at this point. And that's another part of this equation.
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Biden is effectively holding his party hostage. Because the only way this can
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work is for it to be voluntary, or at least be seen as voluntary.
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Well, that scenario is out the window now. The only way this
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can happen is through a blood bath. Which is inherently destructive to the Democrat
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a cause, because you're going to have a certain percentage of people that are
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loyal to the president and who are going to be offended by this guy being
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taken out on a stretcher after he was correctly improperly nominated as the Democrat's presidential
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choice. And you can't be the Party of Democracy and do this. And
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I want to play a clip from MSNBC's Morning Joe. I've been very critical,
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and rightfully so, of both Joe Scarborough and Mika Brazinski and how they've
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handled this whole situation. It's clearly a situation that has caused a problem in
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their marriage. And Mika is a huge Joe Biden supporter. She, when
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Joe was suddenly on vacation last week, rushed to the defense of Joe Biden
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after her husband, Joe Scarborough, had basically told him to withdraw. And
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then Joe came back from this sudden vacation and changed his tune rather dramatically.
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We're going to to that a little bit later on in this episode of the
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podcast. But Morning Joe is an influential show within the liberal elites, and
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to me, this is the sound of Joe Biden reclinching his nomination, if
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that's even a thing, because what you're almost going to hear Scarborough and Brazinski
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coming to that conclusion themselves as they review the letter live on the air.
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So the Biden team could not have possibly have asked for a better set of
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circumstances than this, to have Joe Scarborough and Mika Brazinski on Morning Joe on
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MSNBC going through the letter and basically He's saying, gee, wow, yeah,
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this is right. There's no way we can do this. Not that
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they needed much persuading, because, as I said, Mika Brazinski had rushed
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to Biden's defense and Joe had changed his tune because Mika wears the pants of
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the family. But here's what that sounded like on MSNBC. We are We've
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got the letter from President Biden to fellow Democrats that just went out. Mika,
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I'll have you walk through it. I will say there is one and
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by the way, I understand I'm being tired of letters, there is probably
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a letter they're going to want to read and try to work through it.
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Because if you want Joe Biden out of the race, there are some tough
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facts here that you're going to have to get past, and Meek, I'll
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let you walk through. But I just want to I just want to say
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probably the strongest argument for him, He says in they one to throw fourth
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paragraph down. We had a democratic nomination process, and the voters have spoken
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clearly and decisively. I received over fourteen million votes, eighty seven percent of
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the votes cast across the entire nominating process. I have nearly thirty nine hundred
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delegates, making me the presumptive nominee of our party by a wide margin.
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This was an open process or anyone who wanted to run. The three people
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chose to challenge me. One fared so badly that he led the primaries to
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run as an independent another antagony for being too old, and was soundly defeated.
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The voters of the Democratic Party have voted. They have chosen me to
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be the nominee of the party. Do we now just say I'm slowing down
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for emphasis simply because this is what Jerry Nadler and other Democrats are going to
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have to be able to answer effectively in Mark Warner, Do we now just
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say this process didn't matter, that the voters don't have a say that's a
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key question, just because his opponent is a man who tried to overturn the
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election, right, and then a man who still to this day does not
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accept the election results. Joe Biden goes on to say, I decline to
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do that. I feel a deep obligation to the faith and the trust the
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voters of the Democratic Party have placed in me to run this year. It
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was their to make not the press, not the pundits, not the big
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donors, not any selected group of individuals, no matter how well intentioned,
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the voters, and the voters alone decide the nominee of the Democratic Party.
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How can we stand for democracy in our nation if we ignore it in our
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own party. I cannot do that. I will not do that. I'll
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jump to the end. But there's a lot here to go over. Now.
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It's obvious from that clip that both Joe and Mika are convinced, Yeah,
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this is a good point. There's no way we can do this.
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And as I said, they didn't need a lot of convincing, especially Mica.
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But then that was followed by Joe Biden calling in to the Morning Joe
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Program. Again very strategic, I think, probably pretty smart by the Biden
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handlers. And while that interview didn't go great, it was typical Joe Biden.
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It went well enough. And I think that Joe Biden has secured his
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foothold here. He has basically put it out there for everyone to see,
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or at least his staff has. All Right, folks, if you're going
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to come after me, this is what it's going to take. I ain't
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going anywhere. It's going to require a war, a blood bath. And
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this ain't going to be good for anybody, because a war is terrible,
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especially at this point, as just before your convention, in just a couple
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of months before an election. There's some Democrats who delusionally think that this would
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be a good process for the party of the country. Though it would be
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horrendous. It would be epically horrible for Democrats. It'd be entertaining as hell,
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but it would be political suicide, especially with an incumbent president who's still
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somewhat popular with the Democratic ban not to mention the massive argument of hypocrisy.
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I mean that letter. Can you imagine if they were somehow able to get
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rid of Joe Biden now and all of this has the caveat of no major
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medical event and no massive meltdown like, for instance, at the scheduled Thursday
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press conference this week. But barring an event of that proportion, if they
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were to get rid of Joe Biden, that letter would make the greatest Republican
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campaign prop that's ever been created. You'll have had the incumbent president, the
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properly elected and nominated Democratic nominee, saying my party's a bunch of freaking hypocrites
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that were not really what we say we are, which is the Party of
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Democracy. I mean, that is incredibly difficult set of circumstances to overcome under
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the best of situation. And then Democrats don't have the best of situations because
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they don't have this great candidate on the sidelines ready to come in and save
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the day. They've got Kamala Harris, who's terrible and everybody knows it,
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and so I just don't see how at this point Democrats are able to pull
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this off. And the betting markets are consistent with my assessment of this.
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Prior to this morning, Kamala Harris was actually the favorite in the betting markets
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to be the Democratic nominee, which I thought was delusional. And now Joe
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Biden is back clearly as the favorite, not as strongly as I think he
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should be, because I have just never understood and I certainly don't understand it.
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Now, what is the plausible alternative scenario for what Democrats are able to
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do to change the trajectory of this? In other words, Joe Biden being
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the non again saying one last time barring a medical major medical event or complete
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in total collapse at for instance, a press conference, something to that level.
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And by the way, it has to happen fast. I think it
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has to happen if it was going to before next week, because next week
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is the Republican Convention. Now, this is a part of the equation.
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Nobody is really mentioning and certainly not putting it in its proper context. I
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realize that technically the fact that the Republican Convention next week is basically meaningless from
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a purely technical legal perspective, But in the real world it matters a lot,
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because anything the Democrats do after the Republican Convention is going to be seen
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as inherently dirty pool It's going to have the stench of corruption all over it.
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Basic fairness, I mean, Americans aren't really bright I felt lost a
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lot of trust in the average of American. But the average American, especially
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independent voters, moderate voters, people that determine presidential elections, they have a
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basic sense of fairness, and it's going to be offensive to a lot of
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people should this scenario take place that wait a minute, you took your properly
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nominated incumbent president, and you ditched them after the Republican convention, after the
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first debate, and didn't even have a proper process for finding someone who was
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actually elected, properly nominated, properly within your own rules, to replace them.
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I'm so that's just not going to fly. You have to at least
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do this politically before the Republican convention. The idea that the Republicans would be
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forced to hold their convention without even knowing who their opponent is is ludicrous,
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even by the standards of today. So I've never believed that Joe Biden was
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not going to be the nominee. I contemplated it, gave it up to
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a thirty percent chance. But we're now, in my view, in a
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place where it would take an extraordinary effort that would have enormous political costs to
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get rid of Biden, and there's no indication that there are enough people in
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the Democratic elite circles to have the balls to do what it would take to
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get this done. I mean, not only do you have to have the
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right people decide that they want to get rid of Iden, Barack Obama,
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Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer. They got to have the balls to do it,
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and now they have to have the balls to do it publicly. Because
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there was at least a scenario prior to the events of today where you could,
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at least theoretically do this in private and Joe could say, well,
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you know, I came to a different conclusion. I've thought about it,
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and you know what, four years is a long time, and beating Donald
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Trump is so incredibly important to the future of this country and for the best
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of my party and the best of my country. I'm going to step aside
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and I endorse Kamala Harris to take my place. That was a scenario that
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was at least somewhat theoretically plausible, But now after the letter, I just
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don't see how that could possibly work. After the statements that Biden made in
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the stephanopl interview, which we're going to get to momentarily his clear defiance,
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the fact that he's basically blackmailing the party. He's basically threatening them with destruction
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if they do this. There's no way to do it in a fashion that
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would be remotely politically viable, because it can't be done seamlessly, it can't
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be done bloodlessly, it can't be done voluntarily. And the people that didn't
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have the balls to do it publicly beforehand are certainly not going to find the
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balls to do it now. I mean, let's let's face it, most
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politicians are unbelievably woosified to begin with, but liberal politicians are are inherently woosies
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from a from a DNA standpoint. They don't have the guts to do this,
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and I think Biden, or least people around him are smart enough to
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understand that reality. So while the drama is not yet over, and the
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machinations are not yet over, and there's going to be Democrats are still going
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to be going through the grieving process. I think that for right now,
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barring a major new development, Joe Biden is safe. So let's talk about
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how we got to this point, because there's still some I think significant points
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to be made about how this is transpired, especially when it comes to the
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nature of the news media and where this election is headed. So let's go
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back to what now seems like a long time ago, but it wasn't.
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It was just on Friday evening the George Stefanopolis ABC Joe Biden interview, which
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we referenced in the last episode of the podcast. Now, the first thing
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I want to mention about this is that the plans for the rollout for this
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interview changed rather dramatically in a couple of different ways. And I said in
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the last episode of the podcast Boil Boy, they are giving George Stephanopolis an
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unbelievable amount of power here. They're giving him the potential authority to end his
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presidency or at least his nomination, both in the fact that he will have
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carte blanche to ask any questions he wants and the political and mortal cover to
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do so based upon the circumstances, but also because originally what was going to
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happen was on Friday night on World News Tonight they were going to play some
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clips and then the whole thing was going to be aired on the Sunday morning
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show. That George Stavenopolis hosts, and I thought, my god, that
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is giving George Stavenopolis an enormous amount of power and editing. Because it's taped,
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it's not live, and what Stephanoppolis himself will be able to say,
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and in theory, he could come forward and say, I just didn't think
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the president was with it, and then it's over. At that point,
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well, that plan changed. Now why it changed, I don't know.
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I can only presume that ABC decided to change it. And I think that
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what happened is that they were getting some criticism for the idea that this was
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a taped interview, and they one didn't want to be accused of editing,
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and two, they didn't want to hold a major news story for two days,
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so they decided to block out a half hour and they only needed a
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half hour, which is an important part of this whole equation of prime time
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on Friday evening in order to air the entire Biden Stepanopplos interview unedited. It
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was live to tape, and so effectively, you know, from a content
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standpoint, there was If you believe ABC, and I have no reason to
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disbelieve them, at this point, there was nothing about this that was trying
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to protect Joe Biden. If there was some sort of gaff, it would
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be there. And the fact that they were able to do this within a
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half hour was only made possible because the interview itself was only twenty two minutes.
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Now, I have no idea what the deal was with regard to,
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you know, what the Biden people had promised or what Stephanoppolis was expecting,
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But they've only blocked out a half hour, so they clearly didn't think this
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interview was going over a half hour, and it went twenty two minutes.
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I had said in the previous episode of the podcast, it's got to go
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at least a half hour, because if you go over a half hour,
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that's a full interview. You can't claim that someone cut you short. But
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it's you know, it's it's not so long that Biden can't survive it.
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Well, twenty two minutes of a taped interview when you're trying to prove your
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mental acuity to be president of the United States for four more years just doesn't
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cut it. It just doesn't. Inherently. It's almost like nothing you could
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possibly say in twenty two minutes would change people's minds, especially after what we
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all saw live at the debate the week before, and so I get what
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ABC did. I think they probably made the right choice based upon the circumstances
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they were facing. So they aired the twenty two minute interview, no commercials,
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no edits. They did some analysis afterwards, although Stephanopflis himself interestingly stayed
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out of it. Stayed completely out of it. He did not provide his
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analysis of Biden personally or the interview in general. But by and large,
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the interview was I think accurately described by those on ABC as not really changing
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very much. That he wasn't terrible, but he wasn't great either. And
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before I get to the content of the interview, I just want to say
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a couple of words about Stephanopolis. Look, I don't like Georg Stephanopolis.
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I think it's absolutely absurd that he is a morning news anchor on a major
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network and has been for a very very long time. This is a guy
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who became famous as a political operative for Bill Clinton, a really hardcore,
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brass knuckles, dirty tricks kind of political operative. I shared a video I've
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never seen before. If I have, I've forgotten about it of a young
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George Stephanopolis on the phone, threatening a reporter with what would happen to them
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if they reported dirt on Bill Clinton. I mean, this is a guy
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who really has no business in a rational world being an allegedly objective news anchor
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on a major network. But he is, and he's probably one of the
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biggest names in news in television news these days. Not that that's nearly as
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big a deal as you be, but it still has some significance. However,
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despite the fact I don't like him and I don't think he should be
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in his position, I thought he did a good job. He took an
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interesting tact with the Joe Biden interview, and that tack was basically George Stefanopolis
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as therapist for Joe Biden. That's not an exaggeration. Essentially, what happened
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was that George Stephanopholis was Joe Biden's therapist for twenty two minutes. They taped
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it and then they aired it on ABC. So he was tough, but
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he was nice, he was soft, he was respectful. Now, you
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know, for my money, I wish he would have followed up on some
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of the absurd things that Joe Biden said, some of the lies that Joe
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Biden told, some of the delusions that Joe Biden indicated he believed in.
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But I understand what Stephanopholis was trying to accomplish. This was not a gotcha
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interview. This was a cent letting the country in the world see Joe Biden
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unedited for twenty two minutes, answering questions about his mental acuity lack thereof,
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and its influence on the race. And so I thought that Stephanopolis did a
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good job. Not fantastic, not perfect, but a good job. So
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with regard to the content, there's been a lot of understandable analysis of different
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aspects of the interview itself. To me, there's one clip that I want
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to play for you that I found to be most interesting and most significant on
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a couple of different levels. And this is a clip that got a lot
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of play because at the end of it, Joe Biden basically says that the
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Lord Almighty could ask him to get out of the race, and he might
24:56
do it, but that's not happening now. When he said that, I
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first thought, is he referring to Barack Obama? Really? Wow? I
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thought Obama had already supported Joe Biden well, no, oh, it's not
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Obama. You're referring to us the Lord Almighty. I thought he was the
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Lord Almighty when it comes to democratic politics. But okay, so that was
25:17
my misunderstanding. I guess he's referring to a different Lord Almighty, and that
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I think got a lot of attention, understandably so, because you can't put
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it more dramatically than that, I ain't getting out unless the Lord Almighty tells
25:30
me to. Even then I might not do so, and that ain't happening.
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By the way, I'm curious as to how he knows the Lord Almighty
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ain't going to do that. That's another question that I have in all this.
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But okay, it's an interesting political and religious view of how the Lord
25:45
Almighty works, and there's all sorts of things you could do with that part
25:49
of the statement. I mean, frankly, I think that's a Trump campaign
25:53
commercial winning to happen when Biden does not get out. I mean, what
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an endamniting indictment of Kamala Harris, right, that I feel so strongly that
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I'm better than Kamala Harrison, that she's terrible, that even the Lord Almighty
26:11
could tell me to get out and I might not do so. I mean,
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that is an unbelievable and frankly insulting and democratic rules racist and sexist thing
26:23
to say about your female of color vice president. That's in a huge part
26:32
of this whole situation. But what an inherently insulting and frankly by democratic rules,
26:38
racist and sexist thing to say about Kamala Harris That even the Lord Almighty
26:45
can't get you out of this race for all intensive purposes. Wow, I
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mean to me, that is a Trump campaign commercial waiting to happen in what
26:55
I think should be the Trumps strategy. Should Biden stay in as I believe
27:00
that he will, they need to use this whole situation as ah see,
27:06
this is how bad Kamala Harris is. This is how little they think of
27:08
women. This is how little they think of women of color. That Joe
27:15
Biden is so willing and so desperate to hang on to power partly because they
27:19
know how terrible Kamala Harris is. So the Lord Almighty part was an important
27:23
part of this equation. But I want you to listen before the Lord Almighty
27:30
part, where Stephanophlis and Biden have what I thought, especially at the time,
27:37
was a fascinating, fascinating exchange about what I refer to as the Democratic
27:44
coup attempts against him. And we've got to remember for context here who Stephanopolis
27:49
is. Obviously, he's a former Democratic operative media celebrity. You know,
27:55
he's as well connected with an elite democraticsracles as anybody possibly could be, and
28:03
especially once this interview was announced, you know that all the Democratic elites where
28:08
if they wanted to communicating with George Stavanophlos. So he has an enormous amount
28:15
of information here about what's really going on behind the scenes and this coup attempt
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And it certainly seems to me in the middle of this clip that Stephanopholis is
28:30
trying to test out Biden's awareness of what he's up against politically and whether or
28:37
not he fully understands the extent to which there is opposition at elite levels to
28:45
him being the nominee. And I found it absolutely mind blowing that at one
28:53
point Biden says that's not going to happen with regard to Democratic leader telling him
29:00
to get out of the race, and Stephanopolis says to him, are you
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sure, And the way I interpreted that was I have more information than you
29:12
do, President Biden. That's how I interpreted it, But you can interpret
29:18
it whatever way you want. And here's what that sounded like during the Stebnovelis
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Biden interview. I mean, at a more practical level. Washington Pus just
29:26
reported in the last hour that Senator Mark Warner is assembling a group of senators
29:32
together to try and convince you to stand down because they don't think you can
29:34
win. Well, Mark is a good man. We've never had that.
29:38
He also tried to get the nomination too, Mark Snott. Mark and I
29:44
have a different perspective. I respect him. And if Chuck Schumer and Hakem.
29:49
Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi come down and say we're worried that if you stay
29:55
in the race, we're going to lose the house in the Senate, how
29:56
will you respond. I've go into d telling them, I've speaking of all
30:00
of them in detail, including Jim Climber, every one of them. They
30:06
all said I should stay in the race. Stay in the race. No
30:08
one said. None of the people said I should leave. But if they
30:11
do, well, we're not going to do that. You sure, well,
30:18
yeah, I'm sure. Look, I mean if the Lord of Money
30:22
cannot say Joe get out of the race. I got the race, and
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Lord of Money's not coming down now. The Stephanopholis statement are you sure may
30:33
not have quite as much impact today as it did then, because it is
30:38
my assessment that Biden has checkmated the coup attempts. Now. I could be
30:45
wrong in that, And by the way, I don't think the coup attempts
30:48
are going to stop completely because of the letter that Joe Biden released. I
30:55
don't think that. I just think that there's no way for them to be
30:59
successful. But I do think that it shows that at the time there's a
31:06
strong argument to be made that the intent, the intent to get rid of
31:11
Biden had reached the very highest levels of the Democratic Party elite, and Joe
31:18
Biden was unaware of it, and George Stapanopolis was signaling that with the question
31:26
are you sure now? Again, I don't think it's going to turn out
31:29
that way, but I found that fascinating at the time, and a lot
31:32
of people missed that, partially because they were understandably distracted by the Lord Almighty
31:38
element of that particular statement. To me, the biggest takeaway with regard to
31:45
where Joe Biden is mentally was not that he has advanced dementia or is completely
31:55
unaware of his surroundings or can't think properly. I've always felt that that was
32:00
a little bit overrated and overplayed by the right wing media because he is at
32:07
times able to seemingly function as president, and even during that horrible debate,
32:14
I would say the majority of his answers were coherent, They were in response
32:19
to the question being asked. They were at least somewhat in his mind factually
32:23
based, So it's not like he's completely and totally off the reservation. To
32:29
me, the most concerning part about Biden in the Stepnopolis interview was that this
32:35
is a man who has lost touch with reality, not that he's lost his
32:40
mind, that he has lost touch with reality. He is clearly a person
32:49
who has numerous delusions, and that his ability to discern fact from fiction has
32:55
been largely, if not completely, compromised. Now, this is what happens
33:02
when you get kept in a bubble by your handlers because they're afraid of what
33:08
you might do or say. This happens, I think almost to every president
33:14
to some degree. But I think it's exaggerated when it comes to Joe Biden
33:17
because of his situation, and that his handlers are very fearful of exposing him
33:24
to the real world, where well, over time, you lose touch with
33:29
the real world and you lose the ability and I think this happens to a
33:34
lot of older people under normal circumstances. You lose the ability to discern fact
33:40
from fiction, reality from delusion. And there were numerous points in this interview
33:47
where that was exposed. One of them, which I don't think got nearly
33:52
enough attention, is that Joe Biden tried tried to claim during the stephanopfols in
34:00
the part of why he performed so terribly, and he said he was tired,
34:05
and you know, he tried to do the jet lag thing again,
34:07
but Stephanopolis pressed him on that properly. He also tried to claim that part
34:13
of the reason why he was terrible at debate was he was off his game
34:15
because of all of Trump's lies. Again, no one will tell me what
34:21
specific lies Donald Trump told. There were a lot of half truths and exaggerations,
34:25
but I don't think that Trump blatantly lied anymore than Biden. Biden told
34:30
numerous lies during that debate, they both lied, but Stephanopolis rightfully pushed back
34:37
on this narrative by saying, but it seemed like you were this way before
34:42
Trump even spoke, which is accurate, and Biden didn't have a very good
34:46
answer for that. But the part that really bugged me as someone who cares
34:52
about the country and whether not we have a president who's able to decipher fact
34:57
from fiction, and whether or not they're living in delusional world. Joe Biden
35:02
claimed that Trump was yelling at him during the debate and that was one of
35:09
the reasons why he was off his game. That is a flat out fantasy
35:16
that did not happen, that didn't even come close to happening. And everybody
35:23
knows this. Donald Trump was remarkably disciplined during this entire debate. There was
35:32
not one moment where he yelled at Joe Biden. There were numerous where numerous
35:37
moments where the Donald Trump I thought I knew, would have potentially yelled at
35:44
Joe Biden. But it was obvious that Trump had been properly trained one to
35:50
be disciplined and let Joe Biden melt down in front of the camera. But
35:54
also because of the fact that Trump knew his mike was going to be off
36:00
when it was Biden's turn to speak, that he was just going to shut
36:06
up. And the idea that Biden seems to really believe that Trump was shouting
36:13
at him or yelling at him is sounds like a minor point. But to
36:17
me, this is very significant. This is a guy who is not living
36:22
in the real world. This is a guy who who has a delusional view
36:28
of reality. And it wasn't just that he said Trump was yelling at him
36:34
or that Trump's lies set him off. He also seemed completely delusional about the
36:39
state of the race from a political standpoint. He said at some point that
36:45
he's tied, which is not true. But he also claimed that he was
36:50
down ten in a New York Times poll before the debate, and that's not
36:57
true. So I don't even know where he getting that from. Is that
37:00
from his handlers? Is that just him not wanting to believe bad news.
37:06
Stephanopolis, to his credit, pushed him on this, but that was an
37:09
indication of a guy who is not clearly and firmly placed in reality. Then
37:16
there were the typical lies that Biden already told at the debate, and this
37:21
is I think partially how Biden gets caught in these delusions. He says something,
37:27
the liberal media doesn't correct him, so he presumes that what he's saying
37:30
must be true, or at least he can get away with it, and
37:34
he keeps saying it, and he did so in a Stepanopholis interview, for
37:37
instance, when he claims that Donald Trump is the first president since Herbert Hoover
37:44
to lose more jobs than he gained, which of course is a ludicrous statement
37:50
to make given them COVID panic. And I'm as critical of Trump's handling of
37:54
COVID as anybody, but you cannot blame Donald Trump for the loss of jobs
38:00
in his administration when the entire Democratic establishment, led by Gavin Newsom and Andrew
38:07
Cuomo shut the country town and every Democrat on the planet wanted there to be
38:14
a nationwide lockdown. So it was Democrats that did that, and you know,
38:20
the overreaction into the panic of a pandemic that caused that, you can't
38:24
claim that might be technically true, but it's an obvious effective lie to claim
38:30
that. Because of the circumstances, and no one ever calls him on that.
38:35
He continues to speaking of COVID. He did so again in the Stephanopolis
38:38
interview, where he spews this lie that Trump suggested that we inject ourselves with
38:44
bleach. That's not what happened. Trump made a stupid statement, but that's
38:47
not what he suggested. He did not claim that we all should inject ourselves
38:52
with bleach in order to fight COVID. Yet Biden says that no pushback from
38:58
Stepanopolis, no react in the mainstream media, which is why he keeps spewing
39:02
the same lie. He claimed at some one point during the interview that he's
39:07
the guy who stopped Putin, which is just really bizarre and dangerous given the
39:15
significance of that situation. And so all these things are really in the realm
39:21
of delusion, and that to me is more important than a guy who loses
39:25
his train of thought or can't communicate effectively, or his memory is gone.
39:32
Those things are important, but not as important as being able to live in
39:37
the real world. Now. Trump sometimes has this problem too, which is
39:42
what this is such a scary situation for the country. But that to me
39:49
was my biggest takeaway from the stephan Appls interview. Viz a VI Biden's performance
39:54
from the Democratic perspective. I think the thing that really ticked people off the
40:00
was when he was asked by Stefanophlis, well, what happens if you stay
40:04
in the race and you lose to Donald Trump? And Biden's response was basically,
40:09
oh, well, I did my goodest. It's almost a direct quote,
40:15
not one hundred percent direct quo. I'm kind of a paraphrase, but
40:19
he basically said, as long as I tried my goodest, that's all I
40:22
can do. And I think a lot of Democrats were like, what the
40:25
fuck is that? I mean, in our view, this is the most
40:29
important thing in the world. The country depends on it, democracy depends on
40:35
it in their worldview, and you're just basically like, oops, well,
40:39
oh well, that's just them. There's the breaks. I did the best
40:43
I could and I lost. Well, that's not going to cut it.
40:46
And it's also I think a further indication that this is a guy that has
40:52
lost touch with reality. You know, after the debate, I made the
40:55
argument that the much maligned and mocked and understandably so golf debate portion of the
41:04
debate actually was significant because if Joe Biden really believes that he was once a
41:10
six handicap, and he's currently an eight handicap. That is consistent with a
41:15
guy who has lost all touch with reality. He's living in a delusional world
41:23
that he has created for himself, that his handlers have created for him as
41:29
some sort of defense mechanism against his declining mental acuity whatever it is. So
41:36
that is consistent with who we're now seeing is Joe Biden. He does not
41:42
have a strong touch with reality, and that interview, I think, further
41:47
proved it. So if I'm a Democrat, right, or if I just
41:52
care about the country, I'm not sure that many people seemingly in politics care
41:54
about the country anymore. That to me is my biggest care concern is this
42:00
guy is not in touch with the real world. And from a political standpoint,
42:07
I agree. I hate agreeing with the conventional wisdom, but I agree
42:12
with the conventional wisdom that that interview was basically the worst case scenario for Democrats.
42:19
And the reason why it was the worst case scenario for Democrats is that
42:23
it wasn't horrible enough. It was troubling, and a lot of people were
42:28
actually more troubled by the interview in some ways than they were by the debate
42:31
performance partially because of the things I mentioned, But it wasn't horrible enough to
42:37
get him out of the race, but it wasn't nearly good enough to try
42:43
to correct the perceptions or the reality that was exposed during the debate, and
42:50
so basically Democrats were stuck. You have the perfect storm scenario, at least
42:55
right now, a stubborn old guy who does not want to get out of
43:00
the race and is is, you know, basically locking himself down in the
43:05
bunker and saying, come after me, and if you do, blow this
43:08
whole thing up. But he's got enough support, especially among the Democratic base,
43:15
where you can't get rid of him. And if you do get rid
43:17
of him, it's going to be a blood bath and be counterproductive. And
43:22
so Democrats either wanted Biden to suddenly you get twenty years younger, which isn't
43:29
going to happen, or completely collapse where even Biden or the people around him
43:35
realize this is not tenable. Neither of those scenarios occurred, and that's why
43:40
the conventional wisdom. Usually the conventional wisdom is wrong, but I think of
43:45
this case it might be right at least for now. The conventional wisdom is
43:50
this was the worst case scenario for Democrats, and I think we've already seen
43:53
that play out since the interview and what happened this morning, where it appears
44:00
as if Biden is solidified, solidifying his hold over the nomination. And it's
44:07
my guess, even though this is still a critical week, this is gonna
44:10
happen. It's gonna happen this week. It has to, as I've already
44:14
said, because the Republican Convention is next week, and there's all sorts of
44:17
other things going on Capitol Hill, as you know, people back on to
44:22
their jobs after a recess for the fourth of July holiday. There's a lot
44:27
of reasons to think that things could happen this week, but it's really hard
44:30
for me to envision how that's going to happen given the circumstances that transpired from
44:38
the Stephanopolis interview to this morning with that letter that Biden released, and then
44:45
the appearance on Morning Joe. Thanks for listening to today's free drop of the
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