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Obama’s Ilhan Omar Defense Sparks Immediate Hypocrisy Backlash · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to Greg Karambas of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: National Review.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Three martinis coming up. So glad to be with you
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: for the Monday edition of the Three Martini Lunch. Thanks
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: to Craig Colonese for filling in for me so ably
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: last week. Wonderful vacation. Good to be back. My entire
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: vacation was longer than the press secretary career of Katie Zachariah.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: She had not gotten the job when I left. She
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: was out when I got back and If you want
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: to hear all about that, listen to Jim and Craig's
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: conversations from last week. But a lot can happen in
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: a week, apparently.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: My colleague, Jeff Blahar, lamented. She left before I could
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: make fun of her. And you're like, got to get
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: up early. That's why I write the morning newsletter. You know,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: you got to get in early. So take your shots
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: when the opportunity is there, because you never know. Amazing.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Well, another story that you and Craig covered last week
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: was the federal government raid of Ilhan Omar, presumably... on
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: immigration-related investigations, not only how she came to the country,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: whether she was 17 or 18, and whether she actually
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: went through the process the right way, depending on what
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: her age was. There's, of course, the longstanding controversy over
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: whether she married her own brother so he could be
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: in the country legally, and on and on it goes. And,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: you know, some people, of course, complaining that it's too
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: close to the election, that it's dirty politics. Other people saying, no,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: this story's been out there a long time. So, They
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: are more than fine to investigate it whenever the facts
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: lead them to a certain place. Yesterday, though, Jim, weighing
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: in on this, former President Barack Obama, oddly spending political
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: capital on Ilhan Omar. And he goes on and on.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: This is a long tweet. I'm not going to read nearly.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: All of it.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: But the first paragraph is just amazing. He says it's
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: a basic principle of American democracy that the government can't
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: selectively target individuals simply because of their political beliefs or
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: what they say. But that's exactly it. what the Trump
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: administration is doing to Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. And
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: then he goes on to basically parrot all of her
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Talking points, we'll see how the investigation turns out. But again,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: as I said, why spend a ton of capital on
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Ilhan Omar considering all the slime that's associated with her?
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: But also Jim, Barack Obama saying that it's just so
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: wrong to selectively target individuals because of their political beliefs.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Maybe he thinks most Americans don't have a long political memory.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: You and I certainly do. If you got caught up
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: in the IRS scandal with Lois Lerner or if you're
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: James Rosen or any other reporter, there were a few
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: others who... Certainly got the government looking into their private
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: stuff as a result of their coverage of different things.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Barack Obama is one of the last people who should
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: be talking about the sanctity of the government leaving people
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: alone as a result of their political beliefs.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Greg, at this time, I want you to remember, I
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: told people we have to get in their faces. You know,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you mentioned the IRS. Now, maybe he's going to look
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: at that tweet and say, oh, I acted stupidly like
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: the police in Cambridge. Yeah. Look, it's not like Trump
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: has sicked the NSA on Ilhan Omar, as far as
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: we know. So a couple of things that were weird
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: about this story. I'm glad we're addressing it a second time.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: So I saw a writer for The Guardian. I referred
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: to it as the UK Guardian. She's based in America.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: So apparently it doesn't count as the UK Guardian anymore. OK, whatever. Anyway,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: point being, she wrote that this is an attempt to
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: take her down before the elections. Greg, this is her
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: district is Minneapolis. It's deep.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: She's not losing anyway.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Right. Like to paraphrase the president, she could shoot people
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: on Fifth Avenue and maybe she might lose a few
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: votes from gun control advocates. And we're talking like three
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: of them. Right. Like she she has never lost by
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: less than like or she she's she's never lost in
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: that district. She's never had less than like 60 some
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: percent of the vote. Usually she's close to 70. This
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: is not a competitive district. And so, and let's point out,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: this was a search of her house in DC. This
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: is not an indictment yet. This is not an, uh, conviction.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: You know, we'll, we'll see how this shakes. I'm sure
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: it was a headache. I'm sure it was stressful. I'm
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: sure she saw the agents coming into her house and said,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Oh brother. Um, But nonetheless, like this is not really
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: going to have any effect on the election. Oh, within
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: 60 days. That's the thing where it's a 60 day rule.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: If the person is guaranteed reelection, is it really? I'm
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: less concerned about it being some sort of ethical breach
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: or something like that. But then secondly, every once in
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: a while, Barack Obama will criticize the further left elements
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: of the Democratic Party. But it's it's usually paragraph 17
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: of a 30 paragraph speech. And it's tucked in there
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and stuff like that. It's a very strange time and
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: place for him to, it's been fairly, I mean, he's
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: doing a couple of rallies for a couple of candidates
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: here and there, but like. As he gets older, further
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: away from the political spotlight, he's less active. And he
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: chose to go out for this one. It was kind
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: of weird. And then also, you have like, ah, this
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: is using the state to target your political opponents. Look,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the guy who sent the IRS– I'm sorry. Oh, I
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: know it was low-level employees in Cincinnati who totally on
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: their own decided to say, oh, we're not approving anything
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: for any Tea Party group. Oh, OK. He's the wrong guy.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: He doesn't get to do this. And my suspicion is
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: he does this because he knows he's the wrong guy.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: And it's one part of trying to clean up his legacy,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: his record, and to say, ah, I always opposed lawfare
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and using the resources of government and all that stuff.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: The same way he laments partisanship. Now, Greg, you and
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: I remember him in his campaign suggesting Mitt Romney gave
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: his employees cancer. Correct. You can't throw everything, including the
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: kitchen sink, at your opponent and then say, as he
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: has in a couple of speeches, how did we get
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: so divided? Well, Mr. President, I think this is the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: 1980s anti-drug PSA. I learned it by watching you. Exactly. Exactly.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: So further on in this tweet, he talks about this
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: controversy about whether she was 17 or 18 when she
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: came to the country with her father.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: He says it's.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: Unsubstantiated and on and on it goes. He says, think
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: about that. The full weight of the federal government is
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: has dared to criticize the president.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Do we know she's law-abiding? Like there's a lot of
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: stuff that emits an odor. Right now, my colleagues at
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: National Review who are much smarter and know the law
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: better than I do, including our sometime guest host, Andy McCarthy,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of discussion about this. And there's a
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: variety of factors, including, you know, people, someone recently asked me,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: can they repeal her citizenship? Well, Greg, that assumes she
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: had citizenship in the first place. And I guess really
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: at heart of this is, did she ever qualify for U.S. citizenship?
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: There's a question of like, did you know you did
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: not have citizenship? It's complicated. we're still at step one
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: of what would be a 10-step process. So I don't think,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: you know, and has the Trump administration pursued lawfare and
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: made a huge deal out of the 86-47 James Comey stuff? Yeah.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: You know, is there probably a partisan motive in this? Yeah, probably,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean she's innocent. It also doesn't mean
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: that she gets a get-out-of-jail-free card and we just kind
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: of waive the enforcement of the law and these sorts
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: of things. So I'm not that upset. And he's just
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: asserting that she's done nothing wrong. How do you know that,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Barack Obama? How certain can you be? And, you know,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: what about Ilhan Omar's, you know, entire history makes you think, oh,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: she'd never do something like this. Right.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Last thing I'll say on this one is that I
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: think that the telling sign that she's nervous about this
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: is because most Democrats, if they became the subject of
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: a Trump administration investigation a few weeks before the election,
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: would be like, Yes. Yes, I could use this to
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: rally my supporters, rally the base. Like Gavin Newsom, he
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: loves being under federal investigation out there.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: He thinks that's going to help. Unless he's like, wait,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I'm from Minneapolis. It doesn't matter. I'm getting reelected. I
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: don't need the help.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Maybe not.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: Maybe not. All right.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Can I ask one last comment? Yeah. I wrote about
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: this at National Review, and I mentioned one of the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: things I was pointing out in the heavy article. heavy
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Democratic filter of the district. There is a Republican running
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: against her. He's raised like one seventh of the money
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: she has. And, you know, this guy doesn't have a chance.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: Might be a great guy. It's just this is the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: demographics of the district. There is an independent candidate, Greg,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: who's running and demanded a correction. I checked the FEC.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: He hasn't filed anything with the FEC. He hasn't filed
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: anything with the FEC because, you know, if you raise money,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: you have to tell the FEC. So apparently he's raised
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: no money. So no, I will not be issuing a
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: correction because I didn't mention you, Mr. No-Name, you know,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: gadfly candidate. Go raise some money. Then maybe I'll mention you.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Hey, he probably printed something off and put it on
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: a bulletin board in the grocery store somewhere.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: He might have a bumper sticker. Yes, you know.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes.
• 9:02
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• 9:06
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• 9:07
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• 9:10
  Speaker 2: about helping people who are in a crisis pregnancy? You know,
• 9:14
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• 9:17
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• 9:23
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• 9:25
  Speaker 2: they don't have a good support system. And so they're
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: seriously thinking about abortion. But if you could reach a
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• 9:33
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• 9:35
  Speaker 2: online for answers, you could be the person who showed
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: her compassion, support, and another option? Well, that's exactly what
• 9:41
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• 9:42
  Speaker 1: The people at Human Coalition understand that sometimes the crisis
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• 10:03
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• 10:06
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• 10:21
  Speaker 2: martini and give today. All right, Jim, another big story
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: that's been simmering, in some cases really flaring up for
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: weeks now, but certainly over the weekend. The rioting in France.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: This all started supposedly with college students and others being
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: really upset about the lack of educational reforms in France.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: But when it comes to the left, they don't need
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: much of an excuse to try and burn stuff down.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: And that's exactly what they've been doing. And over the
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: weekend in the historic city of Limoges, and if you
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: want to know the history of that, read Today's Morning Jolt.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Jim does an excellent job of explaining it. You know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: the town hall that got burned down over the weekend,
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: a very impressive structure, dates back all the way back
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: to the 1800s was a critical place in the French resistance.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: And then Emmanuel Macron comes on TV and says, oh,
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: I want you doing this. But your grievances are so real.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: We have to listen to them. But please don't do this. Jim,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: the weakness, the weakness in response to this is perhaps
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: as infuriating as the acts of these radicals in the
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: first place.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: You know, not that long ago, somebody made the argument
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: that Angela Merkel, the former chancellor of Germany, was the
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: most failed leader of this 21st century so far, having
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: taken Germany and made it dependent upon Russian energy, huge
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: amounts of migration from the Middle East and shutting down
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the nuclear energy projects and militarily entirely dependent upon the
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: United States. Completely unprepared for the changes that Donald Trump
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: was going to take and expecting NATO members to pay
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: at least 2%, closer to 5%. Merkel was bad. Strong contender.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: By the way, as details that I've learned in my
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: novel writing research, the Stasi attempted to recruit her. She
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: turned them down. But if she had, Greg, she was
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: working for the Soviets all along. How different would things
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: have turned out? At least that's reassuring. Oh, she was
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: trying to undermine Germany. Anyway, the reason I'm talking about
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: this is that Macron may well be remembered as a
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: comparable colossal failure for France. First of all, I remember
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: talking about this like two weeks ago on The Editors,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: meaning this issue of the riots has been going and
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: going everywhere. really since late September. So we're now crowded
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: into week three here. This argument that allegedly it's about,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: you know, education spending and stuff at the tail end
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: of today's morning jolt. I walked through the French education numbers.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: They ain't bad folks, right? As a percentage of gross
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: domestic product, France's education spending ranks ninth highest out of
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: 29 European countries. If you want to, you know, that's
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: not skimping, right? And then you want to talk about like, okay,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: well maybe it's, you know, spending per student. Well, it
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: comes out once you do, I have to use slightly
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: imperfect numbers. two different academic years and things like that.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: But the general gist is they spend $ 223 billion. That's dollars,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: not euros. They have 12.1 million students at all levels.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: That's going from kindergarten all the way up to college students.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: That comes out to $ 17, 840 per student. In 2024, the
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: most recent year these numbers are available, the United States
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: average was $ 17, 619. Now, Does this mean every school in
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: America is terrific? No. Does this mean that we have
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: everything in education the way we want?
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: No.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: But you would not look at American schools and say
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: they're utterly impoverished and the government does not prioritize them.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: The commitment of the French government has been comparable, right?
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: You can find individual French schools that are subpar. You
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: cannot make an argument that the national government has not
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: prioritized national government, regional governments, local governments, that they have
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: not prioritized education. All of this is an excuse. When
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: you are setting off flamethrowers in young women's faces, this
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: isn't about education. When you are looting the luxury shops
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: in Paris, this is not about economic opportunity. I guess
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: your economic opportunity to steal things. In the end, this
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: is about angry young men, a bunch of whom are Muslim,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: but let's face it. I want to point out, Greg,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: is some of this angry Algerian youth? Sure. Sure. But
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: first of all, these rioters, they look like America. They
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: come in all kinds of different hues. They have one diversity, equity,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: and inclusion is emphasized by the French rioters. They have
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: white ones. They have black ones. They have all kinds of,
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: you know. And the reason I point that out is
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: because the far left party in France, and yes, they
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: have them, is very committed to, it sees itself as
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: an ally of the rioters, right? This is being led
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: by the France Unbowed Party, right? Party's leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: who is a former journalist. And those are just the worst, Greg.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: He's compared to Jeremy Corbyn. He's compared to Bernie Sanders.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: He was a member of the French Trotskyist movement. Greg,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: nothing good comes out of Trotskyist movements. This guy died
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: nearly a century ago. He's still causing headaches for us.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Worked as a teacher and a journalist before entering politics.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: He's 75 years old. So by today's presidential standards, he's young.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: And there's a good chance he's going to get up
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: in the runoff against Marine Le Pen next year in
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the presidential elections. I talked a bit about that city hall.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: As you mentioned, it was the center of the French resistance.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I mentioned all that because, first of all, it's architecturally gorgeous.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: It's been largely destroyed. But I wanted to put out
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: a sense of what was lost, not just in terms
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: of an impressive building, but the history that was there.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: This isn't quite burning down Independence Hall in Philadelphia, but
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: there is significance to this structure and it's gone. And oh,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: by the way, this city in France is kind of
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: known as like the Rome of socialism, right? It was
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: always very left wing and it always was a factory town,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: always was very left wing in its politics. Boy, look
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: how much that saved them. Look how much that mitigated
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the angry mobs. It doesn't matter. Recognizing Palestine, it doesn't matter.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: You know, the fact that you're a socialist, the fact
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: that you're the left, they don't care. They just want
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: to steal. They just want to hurt people. They just
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: want to take things. You know, as they quote the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Dark Knight, you know, some men just want to see
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: the world burn. This is who they are. And Macron,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: nothing's going to get better until you lay down the law. Now,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: it sounds like there's been some improvements, but and I
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: know there are people like, oh, you know, the Vanuels
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: riots of 2005. They had to interrupt flights into Charles
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: de Gaulle International Airport because there was so much smoke
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: from the riots. the yellow vests from a couple of
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: years ago. Yeah, France has a tradition of, but generally
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: they kind of come and they go and it kind
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: of starts out with a strike or something like that.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: This has been going on for the better part of
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the month. And this looks like a government that does
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: not have the capacity to nevermind defend the rights of
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the people or defend the property of the people. When
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: city hall gets burned down, they can't even defend themselves.
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: No, absolutely. And the fact that it's happening in socialist cities,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: is still tragic because it's a beautiful building, like you said,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: with a great history. But it also does remind me
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: of that Churchill quote, at least it's usually attributed to him,
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: is that, you know, these people will feed the crocodile
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: hoping that the crocodile eats them last. And so eventually
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: the crocodile does get to you. And that's what's happening
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: in Limoges. And who knows where else as we go
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: forward here. But Emmanuel Macron also just looks, oh, gosh,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: just incredibly weak in all of this and doesn't seem
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: to have any solutions whatsoever. I don't expect him to
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: have all caps law and order tweets, but something closer
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: to that would be good.
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Rise to the occasion. Like I mentioned, that city hall
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: was the helm of the French resistance, which you could
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: argue was like the best. France gets a lot of
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: jokes about surrendering. And, you know, we're cheese-eating surrender monkeys, yada, yada, yada. Well,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: you know, some French surrendered. Some French kept fighting at
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: great risk to themselves. Like that's the very best of France, right?
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: You know, when things look darkest, your own government quits
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: on you and you have to decide to keep fighting.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm looking at these looters, Greg, and I'm
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: sitting there thinking, boy, you know what they could use
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: out there? Some rooftop Koreans. This is a very 90s-focused show,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: but for anyone who doesn't know that, L.A. Riots, Rodney King, 1992,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: I want to say. Or was it 91? I think
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: it was 92. The Korean shopkeepers in Koreatown in Los
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Angeles had rifles on the top of their stores. And
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: a couple of shots. Nobody wanted to loot those stores.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: They protected them. That's the American spirit right there. No,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: you're not getting my stuff because I'm armed. Again, this
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: is why you need a Second Amendment. Exactly right.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Why you need a Second Amendment. But, France, good luck.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: But so far, your leadership is failing you yet again.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, let's talk about something way better than that.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: And that is the fantastic taste you can get in
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• 18:57
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• 20:05
  Speaker 2: All right, Jim, there's been a lot of twists and
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: turns in the Michigan Senate race with Abdul El-Sayed. There's
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of things he's trying to blur from his
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: past in terms of his ties to the Muslim Brotherhood,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: including an open letter that he wrote at the time
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: that the Muslim Brotherhood was running Egypt, saying he endorsed
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: their consideration of repressing the media as well and abolishing
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: the police to get what they wanted done. Not sure
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: that you want that in Michigan. But now there's a
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: new clip that is actually uncovered from his 2018 gubernatorial campaign.
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: He lost the primary to Gretchen Whitmer, where he was
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: explaining how he became known as Abdul. Well, because it's
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: his name. But anyway, here is the pop culture reference
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: that he used eight years ago.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Funny story about how I became Abdul.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: So my whole name is actually Abdul Rahman, which is
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: about as intimidating as it sounds in English. And my
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: parents got divorced right after they had me and both remarried.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: And I was raised by my father and my stepmom.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: And 1989 rolls around, and I'm about to start kindergarten.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: And my stepmom looks at my dad and is like,
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: kid's not going to make it a day with that name.
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: So they sort of cast about looking for a new thing.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: And it turns out that 1989, in September, guess who's
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: topping the charts?
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Straight Up Now, baby.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: It's Paula Abdul with Straight Up. And so at that point,
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: they're like, this is his name. It's going to be
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: Abdul from here on out.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: It's Straight Up Now, tell me, from Paula Abdul. Jim,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: I'm just sure that a recently relocated Muslim family decided
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: to look at a former Laker girl who's Jewish and
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: scantily clad in her videos and go, that's what we
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: want to associate with.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Greg, I don't know about you. I find it easier
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: time believing he was named after the animated cat in
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: the Opposites Attract video. MC Scat Cat. Yeah.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Of course.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Thank you. All right. So let me just point out,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: you know, that like notice Greg Karambas has that at
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: the tip of his tongue. Oh, yeah. And yeah, if
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: he had been MC El Sayid, I would I believe that. So,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: you know, possible, I suppose. Is it it is kind
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of strange that it looks like maybe this is the
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: most plausible story he's told about his family lately, Greg. Yeah.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Or we're supposed to believe that everybody else in this
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: family loved the Muslim Brotherhood, right? Full-on members, endorsing. Oh,
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: that comment he made back then, but he's the black
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: sheep of the family because he's just kind of not
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: that into the Muslim Brotherhood or something like that. Color
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: me extremely skeptical that he's the only member of his
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: family who's not a big fan of that. Is it possible? Yeah,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I suppose so. But everything, you look at everything else
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: the guy says and, you know, Somebody tries to blow
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: up a synagogue, ah, hurt people, hurt people. You know, like,
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: come on. This guy, look, the issue is not that
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: he's going to be the first Muslim senator if he wins.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: It'll be that he'll be the first Muslim Brotherhood senator
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: if he wins.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: You know what this reminds me of, of course, is
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: when Hillary Clinton said that she was named after Sir
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Edmund Hillary.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Who climbed Mount Everest five years after she was born.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: So people just come up with these strange name stories.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: So there's nothing dramatic. I was named after like my
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: dad's uncle or something. There's nothing cool. There's no, ah,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: you know, my name translates to he who is supposed
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: destined to be elected to office and save the world,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: you know. No, it's James. It's all names. That's not
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: that exciting. There's no, you know, yeah. Yeah.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Why would you say I moved to California in the
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: late 80s and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was one of the best
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: players on the planet? And so we looked at that.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: Paula Abdul. Really?
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Abdul is easier to pronounce than Abdulrahman or whatever.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: Like. Yeah, just shorten it. It's a nickname. We do
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: it all the time, Jim.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: So here's an observation. You mentioned, so yes, Paula Abdul
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: is a Jew of Syrian heritage, I believe. I think so.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And so it's one of those things where like, so
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: here you have someone who's from the Middle East who
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: achieved the heights of mainstream popularity, both in the late 80s,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: early 90s as a performer and then later on as
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: an American Idol performer. I don't think there are a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: ton of people who don't like... She's not a terribly
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: divisive celebrity. There's not... Maybe amongst Boston Celtics fans. But
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: beyond that... So if he's trying to think about like, oh,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: how can I associate myself with someone who is not controversial,
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: warm and fuzzy and cute and cuddly and the most harmless...
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Paula Abdul is never going to harm you. A little
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: scary in the cold-hearted snake video. But beyond that.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: And at Keanu, it's like, you've got to be careful
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: racing in the hush-hush video. But other than that, you know.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Jim, I think a 90s special is brewing here with
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: all this.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: To follow up our 80s one, yes.
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: Early 90s references to Paul Abdul and so much more.
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, speaking of looking back a little bit,
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: when we come back, it's a very special day here
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: on the Three Martini Lunch. Well, as many of you
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: have guessed, because we reference it every once in a while,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: today is the 16th anniversary, as best as we can tell.
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: It's the oldest episode that we have. Anniversary of the
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: Three Martini Lunch. We debuted, I think, on October 19th, 2010,
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: just a couple weeks before. Pretty darn good midterm for
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: the Republicans. But, you know, humble beginnings. And over the years,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: it grew and grew and grew. And, of course, now
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: there's a video element. And as you'll be able to
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: hear in some of these clips that we're going to
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: play here, The audio has improved drastically over the past
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: number of years. But the clip I know that most
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: of our longtime listeners want to hear, we will never
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: deny them that on our anniversary. We have to go
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: back to the summer of 2016. It's horrifically in the
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: wake of the awful Pulse nightclub shooting where the guy
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: was pledging allegiance to ISIS. And what we learned over
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: time is that this guy had been on the FBI's
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: radar a couple of times. They interviewed him and said,
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: no threat. He had actually cased Disney World with his wife,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: and Disney tried to alert the FBI to that, and
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: they never really responded to Disney about that. And so
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: we said, you know what? Well, maybe it's time for
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Disney to take matters into their own hands. And also,
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: we should say here, the Stephen Miller we reference is
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: the guy on X and the blogger, not the one
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: at the White House. But here's how that conversation went.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: What do they have to do to get rounded up?
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Just what is that threshold? Because in this case, this
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: guy never tripped that threshold. And as a result of it,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: close to 50 people are dead.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: You got me thinking when you mentioned what Stephen Miller said,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: that Mickey Mouse is doing more than the FBI to
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: protect us. As the father, and we've mentioned this before,
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: of a three-year-old and a one-year-old, that would be the
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: greatest episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ever.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: Oh, hence where I can see him. Hey, kids, you
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: want to help.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Us catch terrorists? Let's check out our mousketools.
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: We're going to have a stun gun. I'm picturing, like,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: these knees 24. Copy that. I don't have time to explain.
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: I will shoot your wife in the knee if you
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: don't tell me where the bomb is.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: Goofy's doing enhanced interrogation techniques.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Hope you like water. See, there's our good martini.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Oh, Jim. There are so many other good moments, and
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: we'll have another one here in just a second. But, man,
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: that is pinnacle three-martini lunch right there.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Greg, first of all, it's great to have the memories
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: of back when we used to tape the show inside
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: a tin can. Explaining the audio there. And two, I
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: think there's a reason we bring it up every anniversary
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: and people talk about it. It's always the episode they
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: bring up. And I think... look, I feel very lucky
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: and blessed to be able to do this. There are
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: not a lot of podcasts that do it five days
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: a week. There are not a lot of podcasts that
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: do it briefly for five days a week. And we
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: laugh because otherwise we would cry. We talk about some
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: really serious topics on this show sometimes. And somehow on
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: some tangent, we've managed to make each other laugh and
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I hope make the audience laugh. And so let's keep
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: doing this. And that may have been one of our
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: finest moments of finding a way to laugh about a
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: very serious and very sad situation.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a horrible situation. And this last one,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: since we just did the Jets-Bears attack ads, back in 2018,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: where we actually debuted the Jets-Bears attack ads, there was
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: also a congressional race in Wisconsin's 1st District. Paul Ryan
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: was retiring, and there was a guy that's there now,
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Brian Stile, is the Republican in the race. While he's
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: not on very good terms, at least wasn't then with
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: his brother, who started cutting ads for the Democrat in
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: the race. And so Jim and I thought about, well,
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: what if when we were kids, instead of just yelling
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: at each other with our siblings in front of our
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: parents to decide who was right, we just actually made
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: attack ads? Jim, how much more fun would our childhood
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: have been as political junkies if instead of just complaining
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: to mom or dad when our siblings did something we
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: didn't like? We could produce 30-second attack ads. And I
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: shared a room with my brother. He was much neater
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: than me. He could have cut an attack ad against
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: me saying, Greg Karambas is the messiest brother Upper Michigan
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: has ever seen. And I could fire back with, Mark
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Karambas is ridiculously tidy. His expectations are completely unreasonable.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: Greg, the way you're describing that, you make it sound
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: like there's a 100% certainty that I didn't run attack ads.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: Paul Garrity gets to stay up until 9.30. But when
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Jim was his age, his bedtime was at nine. Is
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: that a policy that strikes you as fair?
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Oh, the attack ads are fun. But I agree with
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: what you said, Jim. It's so much fun every day.
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: On the one hand, it's just fun to talk through
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: the news with you every day, but it's also a
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: little bit of an opportunity to vent when we're frustrated
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: about things or really celebrate when things go well. So
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: a lot of events over the last 16 years, and
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: hopefully there's 16 years and more to go. We thank you,
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: the audience, our listener. We thank you for being there
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: every step of the way. Some of you have been
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: there really since day one. Others of you have found
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: us more recently along the way. And we hope you
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: enjoy this 30 minutes where we can kind of wrap
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: up some of the biggest stuff and hopefully give you
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: a smile before you leave.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Greg, I just want to point out our show is
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: now old enough to get a learner's permit in Virginia.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: Listenership was sparse in the early days, but we stuck
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: to it. And now we're the thriving success that we
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: are with sponsors every day and listenerships. And now we're
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: on video so people can count what shirts, how often
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I wear the same shirt two days in a row.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: And- See, now everybody's going to go back to the
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: archives and say, wait a second. I have several shirts
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: that are the same because I have a boring spaz
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: who's like, oh, I like that shirt. I'll buy three
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: of them. Exactly.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: All right. Well, on to year 17. Jim Garrity of
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: National Review. I'm Greg Karumbas of Radio America. Thanks so
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: much for being with us today. Please be sure to
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: subscribe to the Three Martini Lunch. If you don't already,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: tell your friends about us as well. Thanks also for
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: your five-star ratings and your kind reviews. Please keep those coming.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Get us on your home devices. All you have to
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: say is play Three Martini Lunch podcast. Follow us both
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: on X. He's at Jim Garrity. I'm at Greg Karumbas.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: And follow Three Martini Lunch on Facebook and Instagram. Have
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: a great Monday, and please join us Tuesday for the
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: next Three Martini Lunch.