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Episode One Hundred Seventy Eight: Honeymoon High · The Death Of Journalism

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Speaker 1: Welcome to episode number one hundred and seventy eight of
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Speaker 1: the Death of the Journalism podcast.
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Speaker 2: My name is John Zigler. I'm your host on today's show.
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Speaker 1: Kamala Harris has chosen her vice presidential nominee, but I
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Speaker 1: don't know who it is as I tape this episode,
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Speaker 1: but I will guess. We will break down Donald Trump's
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Speaker 1: controversial visit to the National Association of Black Journalist Event
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Speaker 1: podcasting King Joe Rogan says he can, much like me,
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Speaker 1: see Kamala Harris winning and how nearly everyone has gotten
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Speaker 1: the Olympic women's boxing controversy at least a little bit wrong.
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Speaker 1: One of the many challenges of doing this podcast is
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Speaker 1: that there is a delay from the time that I
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Speaker 1: tape the podcast to the time that it becomes public.
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Speaker 1: And in this day and age where things happen fast
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Speaker 1: and furiously, sometimes that can mean that the podcast is
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Speaker 1: immediately dated.
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Speaker 2: Then you add in the fact that.
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Speaker 1: Occasionally I have to tape at different times because because
1:00
Speaker 1: of events of my life, and sometimes you have difficult
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Speaker 1: situations that are nearly impossible to navigate well. This episode
1:07
Speaker 1: may be one of those, and that is because it
1:11
Speaker 1: is widely accepted that by the time you hear this
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Speaker 1: podcast episode, there is an extremely good chance that Kamala
1:19
Speaker 1: Harris will have chosen her vice presidential nominee. However, I
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Speaker 1: don't know who that is as I tape it, So
1:29
Speaker 1: therefore I have to make a decision.
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Speaker 2: Do I ignore the story or do.
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Speaker 1: I guess and just fix it later on If I
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Speaker 1: turn out to be wrong, well, I'm going to do
1:41
Speaker 1: the latter rather than the former for a couple of
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Speaker 1: different reasons. Partially because, as of this taping, the prohibited favorite,
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Speaker 1: although not as prohibitive as he used to be to be,
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Speaker 1: Kamala Harris's vice presidential nominee is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
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Speaker 2: Now, I might, under.
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Speaker 1: Normal circumstances just decide I'm just gonna wait until that
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Speaker 1: pick is made, and I'll just, you know, react when
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Speaker 1: I find out when I do the next episode of
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Speaker 1: the podcast. But because Shapiro is so deeply involved in
2:16
Speaker 1: the entire penn State Joe Paterno Jerry Sandowski quote unquote scandal,
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Speaker 1: especially with regard to Graham's Spaniard, because I have a
2:24
Speaker 1: very deep personal connection to all of that story obviously,
2:28
Speaker 1: and to Shapiro's element of it. In particular, I feel
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Speaker 1: an obligation to not have a couple of days go
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Speaker 1: by with him theoretically being the vice presidential nominee and
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Speaker 1: me not having said anything about it.
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Speaker 2: So I'm gonna take a chance.
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Speaker 1: I'm gonna take a flyer, and I'm just gonna pretend
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Speaker 1: that Shapiro is the nominee, even though I'm not one
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Speaker 1: hundred percent sure he's going to be.
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Speaker 2: There are good reasons to believe that he will be.
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Speaker 1: I'm one of which I think has been mostly, if
2:58
Speaker 1: not totally, misinterpreted, which is that the mayor of Philadelphia,
3:04
Speaker 1: who appears to be a dingbat, had her social media
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Speaker 1: person by accident post a video that was already created
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Speaker 1: in order to tout a Harris Shapiro ticket in the
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Speaker 1: state of Pennsylvania. And we already know that later on
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Speaker 1: this week, apparently at the first event that the Harris
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Speaker 1: will be doing with her VP nominee, it's going to
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Speaker 1: be in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, obviously Shapiro's home territory. So
3:35
Speaker 1: everyone automatically presumed this must be inside information that was
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Speaker 1: accidentally leaked. I don't interpret it it that way at all.
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Speaker 1: I think this was done as an anticipation.
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Speaker 2: This was a prediction.
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Speaker 1: This is a little bit like what we saw with
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Speaker 1: the quote unquote reports that Biden was going to drop
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Speaker 1: out of the race.
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Speaker 2: Those weren't reports, those were predictions.
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Speaker 1: The Mayor of Philadelphia was prepared just in case this
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Speaker 1: actually turned out to be the case, that Shapiro was
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Speaker 1: in fact the nominee.
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Speaker 2: Now, how the hell that got released online? I have
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Speaker 2: no idea.
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Speaker 1: Obviously a massive colossal screw up, But if you use
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Speaker 1: your brain, it doesn't make a lot of sense that
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Speaker 1: everybody in the Philadelphia Mayor's office down to the social
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Speaker 1: media director would know that Shapiro was the VP nominee
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Speaker 1: and that not to be widely reported. That would be
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Speaker 1: basically impossible, especially in reports that over this past weekend
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Speaker 1: Harris was meeting with and interviewing several VP candidates, which
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Speaker 1: would be particularly awkward if she had already chosen Shapiro
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Speaker 1: to be the person. Now she may have already chosen Shapiro.
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Speaker 1: That video may turn out to be right, or it
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Speaker 1: may not turn out to be correct, because there are reports.
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Speaker 1: I find this is to be both amazing as well
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Speaker 1: as remarkable in many way, ease and there are reports
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Speaker 1: that Senator John Fetterman from Philadelphia has been trying to
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Speaker 1: put the kebash on the Shapiro VP nomination.
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Speaker 2: Now, these aren't just rumors.
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Speaker 1: This appears to be very legitimate from multiple sources, either
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Speaker 1: close to Federman or within his office, confirming the idea
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Speaker 1: that Fetterman has urged the Harris people to not select Shapiro. Now,
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Speaker 1: the part of this that's amazing is not that Fetterman
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Speaker 1: believes that that's not that unusual, especially if somebody might
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Speaker 1: be a political rival. You know, who's the top Democrat
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Speaker 1: in the state now and in the future.
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Speaker 2: Okay, that makes some sense.
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Speaker 1: But Feedtterman appears, unless there's a huge revolt within his office,
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Speaker 1: appears to be okay with his name being attached to
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Speaker 1: the idea that Shapiro should not be the VP nominee. Now,
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Speaker 1: that again, unless there's something really different than what we
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Speaker 1: are being told, which is always possible in this era
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Speaker 1: where the media is not to be trusted, it certainly
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Speaker 1: is a very strong indication that something is a miss. Now,
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Speaker 1: there are a lot of different reasons for why Fetterman
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Speaker 1: supposedly is against Shapiro being the VP pick. Who knows
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Speaker 1: how much influence he has. The weirdest part of that
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Speaker 1: is not only they both Democrats, but they're probably the
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Speaker 1: two strongest pro Israel Democrats in the entire party right now,
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Speaker 1: Fetterman and Shapiro. And yet here it appears as if
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Speaker 1: Fetterman has been behind the scenes and now it's leaked
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Speaker 1: publicly trying to urge the Harris people to not select Shapiro.
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Speaker 1: Apparently one of the reasons is because he believes that
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Speaker 1: Shapiro is all about himself, which I one hundred percent
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Speaker 1: agree with, and he's not to be trusted. But that's
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Speaker 1: apparently not the only reason why Fetterman may be against
7:02
Speaker 1: the Shapiro pick. So right now, as I take this,
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Speaker 1: the clear favorite to be the VP pick is Josh Shapiro. However,
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Speaker 1: I'm not one hundred percent convinced that it's actually going
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Speaker 1: to be Shapiro. Part of me always thinks that the
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Speaker 1: conventional wisdom is wrong, and if the conventional wisdom is
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Speaker 1: so confident that it's Shapiro, then.
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Speaker 2: Maybe it won't be.
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Speaker 1: But in this particular case, if we put the Fetterman
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Speaker 1: issue aside, it really would take something extraordinary for Harris
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Speaker 1: to decide to go in a different direction than Shapiro,
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Speaker 1: if only because of the electoral college math. There's no
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Speaker 1: other option that does is much, at least in theory
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Speaker 1: for Harris, then Shapiro would. Obviously, Pennsylvania is a huge state.
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Speaker 1: It's incredibly important. It was the keystone, if you will,
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Speaker 1: of Trump's twenty sixteen victory. It's a big part of
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Speaker 1: why Biden won in twenty twenty because he took Pennsylvania.
8:07
Speaker 1: While you never know for sure, and it's impossible to
8:10
Speaker 1: know whether or not the databacks this up. Logically, you
8:13
Speaker 1: would think that a popular governor in Pennsylvania would be
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Speaker 1: able to take a state that's basically fifty to fifty
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Speaker 1: up for grabs right now and put it in the
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Speaker 1: Harris column. And if in fact he was able to
8:26
Speaker 1: do that, that would be way more valuable than most
8:30
Speaker 1: vice presidential nominations. And it would also erase any electoral
8:35
Speaker 1: value that jd Vance had or theoretically had for Donald Trump,
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Speaker 1: because it was in the middle of the state of
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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Appalachia, if you will, where jd Vance was thought
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Speaker 1: to have some potential political value. So you literally erase
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Speaker 1: Trump's VP pick. You give yourself a huge advantage in
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Speaker 1: maybe the most important state to Pennsylvania, and there's nobody
9:03
Speaker 1: else that can do that for you. You know, my
9:07
Speaker 1: father was given an information before Biden's would draw, indicating
9:12
Speaker 1: that he was told that Mark Kelly would be the
9:15
Speaker 1: nominee of the Senator from Arizona. And I'm not convinced
9:20
Speaker 1: that that would be a smart idea one because I'm
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Speaker 1: not sure Kelly brings Arizona, and I'm not sure that
9:25
Speaker 1: trading Pennsylvania for Arizona is a particularly good swap.
9:28
Speaker 2: I also think that with regard to Kelly, the worst.
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Speaker 1: Part of that situation is that you would have a
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Speaker 1: California Arizona ticket with no geographic balance whatsoever when the
9:41
Speaker 1: election is going to be decided in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
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Speaker 1: That doesn't make any sense to me, especially when Kelly
9:49
Speaker 1: doesn't bring anything all that special to the ticket. Now
9:54
Speaker 1: there's talk about, you know, the governor of Minnesota, and
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Speaker 1: I just Pete boudha Judge to me, well, he would
10:02
Speaker 1: bring in the problem of not having a straight mail
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Speaker 1: on the ticket. You know, would actually be probably more
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Speaker 1: potent and probably be a better pick for Harris than
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Speaker 1: the governor of Minnesota.
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Speaker 2: I mean, Minnesota is not a swing state anymore.
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Speaker 1: It was for about fifteen minutes before Biden got out,
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Speaker 1: So I don't understand what what that does. Although apparently
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Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi is pushing that direction, I don't get that whatsoever.
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Speaker 1: So part of the reason why I'm pretty convinced, not totally,
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Speaker 1: that it is going to be Shapiro, is because there's
10:36
Speaker 1: no other option that makes as much sense unless there's
10:40
Speaker 1: something about Shapiro that they're really really concerned about. There's
10:44
Speaker 1: been speculation that could he be poisoned in Michigan because
10:50
Speaker 1: of the fact that he's Jewish and so pro Israel.
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Speaker 1: I haven't seen any data that backs that up. I
10:56
Speaker 1: understand that's a popular belief. I've mentioned it myself as
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Speaker 1: a possibility, but I'm not certain that that actually comes
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Speaker 1: to fruition, especially when Trump is the alternative. I mean,
11:08
Speaker 1: who are those pro Palestinian Democratic voters in Michigan going
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Speaker 1: to vote for. I mean, they're not going to vote
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Speaker 1: for Donald Trump. Maybe they stay home, and maybe that's
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Speaker 1: the difference, but I'm just not I've never been convinced
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Speaker 1: totally of that narrative. So who is Josh Shapiro. Well,
11:26
Speaker 1: the reason why I despise Josh Shapiro so much is
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Speaker 1: because of what he personally, with a clear vendetta, did
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Speaker 1: to former penn State President Graham Spaniard. Now, if you're
11:40
Speaker 1: a listener to with the benefit of hindsight, you probably
11:43
Speaker 1: are very, very familiar with this story already.
11:45
Speaker 2: If you haven't, you should listen to it.
11:47
Speaker 1: You should specifically listen to the couple different interviews that
11:51
Speaker 1: we did with Graham Spanier. Vote for this podcast as
11:54
Speaker 1: well as with the benefit of hindsight on this very
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Speaker 1: particular issue, what did Josh Shapiro do to Graham Spaniard?
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Speaker 1: And the short version is that Josh Shapiro, as the
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Speaker 1: Attorney General of Pennsylvania, decided to go on a vendetta
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Speaker 1: against a man who was totally innocent factually and was
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Speaker 1: determined to be innocent under the law by a federal court,
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Speaker 1: and decided to put that person, went way beyond, way
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Speaker 1: beyond what he had to do, bent over backwards to
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Speaker 1: put a person who was convicted of a misdemeanor the
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Speaker 1: only crime he's ever been charged with, convicted of.
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Speaker 2: A misdemeanor under extremely.
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Speaker 1: Dubious circumstances thrown out in federal court, appealed it, and
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Speaker 1: eventually tossed Graham Spaniard in prison for multiple months while
12:51
Speaker 1: he had very serious cancer, all because he felt like
12:56
Speaker 1: it was going to help him politically and because he
13:00
Speaker 1: wanted to take the strongest stand possible against the entire
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Speaker 1: Penn State quote unquote scandal, and he was not going
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Speaker 1: to allow. Graham Spaniard, an incredibly nice guy, so liberal,
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Speaker 1: that he ended up voting for Shapiro for governor, much
13:18
Speaker 1: to my absolute outrage, Lizabiebe's outrage, I'm sure many of
13:25
Speaker 1: you the listeners, outrage that how in the world could
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Speaker 1: Graham Spaniard possibly decide to vote for the man who
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Speaker 1: threw him in prison when he was clearly innocent, both
13:35
Speaker 1: factually and under the law. But he wanted to prove
13:38
Speaker 1: Spaniard did what a great liberal and what a great
13:40
Speaker 1: Democrat he is, and so he did so. But that
13:45
Speaker 1: doesn't change what Shapiro did. Shapiro is one an asshole
13:50
Speaker 1: and two a moron. If he really thinks that Graham
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Speaker 1: Spaniard is guilty, and based upon his public statements, he
13:59
Speaker 1: must think that he's guilty. However, I'm not totally convinced
14:04
Speaker 1: of that. And part of the reason I'm not totally
14:07
Speaker 1: convinced of that is that there's another aspect of the
14:11
Speaker 1: Shapiro story that I am very familiar with that I've
14:15
Speaker 1: talked about publicly previously, and that deals with my late
14:20
Speaker 1: great friend Frank O'harris, obviously a pro Football Hall of Famer,
14:25
Speaker 1: immaculate reception, Penn State legend, a guy who was a
14:29
Speaker 1: big part of our podcast with the benefit of hindsight,
14:32
Speaker 1: and with whom I became very very close throughout this
14:37
Speaker 1: twelve year plus odyssey that has been searching for and
14:42
Speaker 1: trying to disseminate the truth, the real truth of the
14:44
Speaker 1: Penn State Joe Paterno Jerry Sandovsky story. And I'll never
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Speaker 1: forget it, especially since it was less than a year
14:53
Speaker 1: later when Frank o Harris passed away. But at Franco's
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Speaker 1: last Super Bowl party, and this was in February of
15:01
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, so this was the beginning of the
15:04
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary of the mcuill reception. We attended Franco's party,
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Speaker 1: and I believe Franco proactively proactively told me that Josh
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Speaker 1: Shapiro had asked for his endorsement as governor of Pennsylvania.
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Speaker 1: I'm not sure people, especially those outside of Pittsburgh, I
15:26
Speaker 1: understand just how big of a deal Franco Harris was
15:30
Speaker 1: in not just the state of Pennsylvania, but in Democratic politics.
15:35
Speaker 2: Huge.
15:35
Speaker 1: I mean, he introduced the Democratic presidential nominee in Pittsburgh
15:42
Speaker 1: the day before the or just before the presidential election
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Speaker 1: in both twenty sixteen and in twenty twenty, Hillary Clinton
15:51
Speaker 1: and Joe Biden. In fact, I had dinner with Franco
15:57
Speaker 1: the night that he did that for Hillary Clinton in
16:01
Speaker 1: a Chinese restaurant in Pittsburgh. But by the way, I mean,
16:04
Speaker 1: there's so many ways to show just what a huge
16:07
Speaker 1: deal Franco was. But I mean, here's a guy who's
16:10
Speaker 1: been retired for many decades, and it's not like a
16:14
Speaker 1: Chinese restaurant is really his demographic, And you know, he
16:18
Speaker 1: was treated like a god in a Chinese restaurant.
16:22
Speaker 2: And I'll never forget that night.
16:24
Speaker 1: He was so confident that Hillary was going to beat
16:26
Speaker 1: Trump that he actually, because he knew I was a Republican,
16:29
Speaker 1: he actually was concerned that there may not be a
16:33
Speaker 1: Republican party going forward because the Republican Party was going
16:37
Speaker 1: to get so wiped out in the twenty sixteen election.
16:41
Speaker 1: That didn't turn out exactly the way that Franco anticipated.
16:44
Speaker 1: But the point of this is that Franco's endorsement actually
16:48
Speaker 1: meant a lot within Democratic politics in Pennsylvania, and I
16:53
Speaker 1: was stunned and quite happy when Franco at that Super
16:57
Speaker 1: Bowl party proactively said to me that Shapiro had asked
17:01
Speaker 1: for his endorsement, but that he was not going to
17:05
Speaker 1: be able to give it because of Shapiro's treatment of
17:10
Speaker 1: Graham Spaniard, who Franco knew to obviously be innocent. Franco
17:16
Speaker 1: had actually attended, along with me and many others, Graham
17:20
Speaker 1: Spaniard's trial, which was a complete and total farce. It
17:23
Speaker 1: was such a joke that the jury foremant actually came
17:26
Speaker 1: out the day after that misdemeanor conviction and said that
17:29
Speaker 1: I think we got the whole thing wrong. And then,
17:31
Speaker 1: as I said, the appeals court eventually determined.
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Speaker 2: That they did. I mean, forget about the fact that
17:36
Speaker 2: he was innocent.
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Speaker 1: Factually, the law wasn't even the law, the law under
17:41
Speaker 1: which he was convicted. It wasn't even the law at
17:42
Speaker 1: the time there was also a statute of limitations.
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Speaker 2: This year, there's all sorts of problems and Franco I
17:49
Speaker 2: was so proud of him that day.
17:50
Speaker 1: I was stunned because I knew how important democratic politics
17:55
Speaker 1: was to him, but I was so proud of him
17:56
Speaker 1: that he he told Shapiro, no, I'm sorry, I can't
18:00
Speaker 1: give you that endorsement because of the Grand Spaniard issue.
18:04
Speaker 1: Well then a few months went by, and I believe
18:07
Speaker 1: this was just before the Democratic primary, and all of
18:11
Speaker 1: a sudden, someone sends me on social media a picture
18:15
Speaker 1: of Franco standing. I think it might have been outside
18:19
Speaker 1: of the Penn State football stadium, maybe at the spring
18:22
Speaker 1: football game or something, where Franco and Shapiro are standing
18:26
Speaker 1: arm in arm, with Franco give him thumbs up and
18:29
Speaker 1: Shapiro thanking him for his endorsement. Now, I was stunned, depressed,
18:35
Speaker 1: a bit angry, and confused, and I asked to speak
18:39
Speaker 1: to Franco about this because I'm like, what what, Franco,
18:44
Speaker 1: What was that? And at first Franco tried to play
18:47
Speaker 1: it off like, well, I felt like I had to
18:48
Speaker 1: get back in the game. It's you know, it's the
18:50
Speaker 1: competition in me and I said, you know, come on, Franco,
18:54
Speaker 1: can we talk about this? And it was probably one
18:58
Speaker 1: of the most difficult conversations we ever had, although it
19:03
Speaker 1: turned out pretty well. Thankfully, it turned out pretty well
19:07
Speaker 1: because to my recollection, it might have been our last conversation.
19:12
Speaker 1: It was certainly one of our last conversations. And basically
19:17
Speaker 1: the crux of it was that Franco had justified his
19:21
Speaker 1: switch because he had had a conversation with Shapiro about
19:26
Speaker 1: the whole Penn State scandal and remarkably, and I think tellingly,
19:31
Speaker 1: and maybe this was Shapiro bullshitting Harris, or maybe it's
19:35
Speaker 1: an indication that Shapiro is.
19:37
Speaker 2: Full of crap on Spaniard. I'm not sure.
19:39
Speaker 1: I'll probably never know because Franco is no longer with us.
19:43
Speaker 1: But Shapiro told Franco that he didn't think that Joe
19:47
Speaker 1: Paterno did anything wrong, which is true. But I don't
19:51
Speaker 1: know how you could think that Joe Paterno did absolutely
19:55
Speaker 1: nothing wrong and believed that Graham Spaniard, who never even
19:58
Speaker 1: had a conversation with my mcquery or Jerry Sandoski, belonged
20:03
Speaker 1: in prison, especially under the circumstances of the case.
20:06
Speaker 2: Itself. That doesn't make any sense to me.
20:10
Speaker 1: The Oxom's razor explanation here is that Shapiro is an
20:14
Speaker 1: incredibly political animal who's just doing whatever's best for him
20:18
Speaker 1: in that moment, and in that moment with Frank o'harris
20:21
Speaker 1: telling him he doesn't think that Joe Paterno did anything
20:23
Speaker 1: wrong is the path to getting Frank o'harris's endorsement. And
20:28
Speaker 1: part of that was what Franco thought was a deal.
20:33
Speaker 2: Now this is I.
20:34
Speaker 1: Don't want to get no situation where I'm overplaying or
20:38
Speaker 1: misinterpreting or saying things that were not said to me.
20:42
Speaker 1: But I know that Franco believed that he had a
20:48
Speaker 1: deal with Josh Shapiro that after the election, once he's
20:53
Speaker 1: the governor of Pennsylvania, since he doesn't believe Joe Paterno
20:56
Speaker 1: did anything wrong, that he would help restore Joe Paterno's
21:00
Speaker 1: you or do something else in that vein of restoring
21:04
Speaker 1: Joe Paterno's reputation. And in fact, Franco even said to
21:08
Speaker 1: me that he had never called in that that type
21:13
Speaker 1: of a favor or a deal with any politician in
21:16
Speaker 1: his entire life, but that he was absolutely prepared to
21:20
Speaker 1: do so in this situation, and that was enough to
21:24
Speaker 1: convince me that, Okay, Franco, I don't agree with your
21:28
Speaker 1: endorsement of Shapiro.
21:30
Speaker 2: Not that I matter at all, but.
21:31
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we'd been in this war together
21:34
Speaker 1: for over a decade, and we'd always been very honest
21:37
Speaker 1: with each other, and this was probably one of the
21:41
Speaker 1: biggest challenges we ever faced, because I was frankly pretty
21:44
Speaker 1: pissed off that he had reversed what he had told
21:47
Speaker 1: me at his Super Bowl party, and I.
21:51
Speaker 2: Was okay with it.
21:51
Speaker 1: I'm okay, all right, if you're going to get something
21:53
Speaker 1: out of the deal, right, then that's worth your endorsement
21:57
Speaker 1: of Josh Shapiro.
21:58
Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately, just a few months later, Franco.
22:02
Speaker 1: Harris was dead, just before the fiftieth anniversary of the
22:05
Speaker 1: Immaculate Reception Anniverse, you know, fiftieth anniversary of that having
22:09
Speaker 1: taken place, and all of the celebrations that were surrounding that,
22:13
Speaker 1: and I'm to this day convinced that they may have
22:15
Speaker 1: indirectly played a role in Franco's heart finally giving out.
22:20
Speaker 1: But once Franco was dead, obviously any deal that he
22:24
Speaker 1: may or may not have had with Josh Shapiro was over,
22:26
Speaker 1: and there's been no indication at all.
22:28
Speaker 2: That Shapiro has done anything as governor.
22:30
Speaker 1: To try to help the cause for Joe Paterno, whether
22:33
Speaker 1: it's his statue or anything else.
22:36
Speaker 2: So I have no trust in Josh Shapiro.
22:39
Speaker 1: I believe him to be an asshole at best. I'm
22:46
Speaker 1: going to presume he's not a complete moron. He doesn't
22:48
Speaker 1: appear to be a dumb person, but frankly, this may
22:53
Speaker 1: be a situation that's worse than being a dumb person,
22:56
Speaker 1: because he has no principles, no beliefs, and for him
23:00
Speaker 1: to be so evil as to do what he did
23:03
Speaker 1: to Graham Spaniard when he tells Frank o'harris that he
23:07
Speaker 1: doesn't believe that Joe Paterno did anything wrong, I'm sorry.
23:11
Speaker 2: That is a very very bad person. That's a bad person.
23:16
Speaker 1: And I believe that that's what Josh Shapiro is as
23:20
Speaker 1: far as Graham Spaniard is concerned. Again, I don't know
23:24
Speaker 1: as of this taping whether Shapiro is actually the vice
23:28
Speaker 1: presidential nominee for Kamala Harris or not. But I have
23:30
Speaker 1: reached out to Graham Spaniard and this is going to
23:33
Speaker 1: shock people who have followed the pad State, Joe Perderto
23:37
Speaker 1: Jersdusky story. But my interactions with Graham have been both
23:41
Speaker 1: interesting and disappointing. I have been in touch with him
23:45
Speaker 1: to try to have a conversation about planning for if
23:50
Speaker 1: Shapiro becomes the vice presidential nominee, because in my opinion,
23:54
Speaker 1: this opens up a huge door for Graham to get
23:59
Speaker 1: a ten his story. Now, it's not a magic bullet
24:04
Speaker 1: because neither the left nor the right are going to
24:07
Speaker 1: embrace span your story under any circumstances.
24:11
Speaker 2: That's the problem. We live in a world.
24:13
Speaker 1: Where you got to have either the left or the right,
24:16
Speaker 1: especially in the media, embrace the story.
24:19
Speaker 2: But there's no self interest in this story. And it
24:22
Speaker 2: gets further complicated by the fact that I.
24:25
Speaker 1: Actually think it gives in a weird way, it gives
24:27
Speaker 1: Graham's story even more credibility the fact that he is
24:31
Speaker 1: openly going to vote for the Harris Shapiro ticket or
24:36
Speaker 1: whoever might be the vice presidential nominee for Harris, He's
24:39
Speaker 1: already told me that just like he voted for Shapiro
24:42
Speaker 1: for governor, it doesn't matter that he hasn't changed his
24:46
Speaker 1: mind one bit about who Shapiro is or how corrupt
24:49
Speaker 1: he was and how he dealt with his own situation.
24:53
Speaker 1: But my guess is that Graham, and again I've been
24:58
Speaker 1: told not to divulge what was said, so.
25:01
Speaker 2: I'm gonna abide by that. But my guess is that
25:04
Speaker 2: Graham's not gonna do anything.
25:06
Speaker 1: That this is gonna be yet another opportunity should it
25:10
Speaker 1: come to pass and Shapiro be the vice presidential nominee,
25:13
Speaker 1: where the very least Graham should get could get a
25:16
Speaker 1: lot of attention on his book and on his part
25:18
Speaker 1: of this story, and give credibility to the entire counter
25:23
Speaker 1: narrative of the of the Penn State Joe Paterno Jerry
25:26
Speaker 1: Sandusky story.
25:27
Speaker 2: But Graham, I don't believe he is going to do that.
25:29
Speaker 2: I don't think he's one hundred percent not going to
25:32
Speaker 2: do that.
25:32
Speaker 1: But at this point, based upon my experience, I'm gonna
25:36
Speaker 1: guess he's gonna wimp out, which is classic for the
25:40
Speaker 1: entire situation. I've learned an awful lot about liberals from
25:43
Speaker 1: my dealings with Graham. Spaniard a very nice guy, but geez,
25:50
Speaker 1: it's unbelievable how wossified these people are, and this is
25:54
Speaker 1: how a large part of how this story went down
25:57
Speaker 1: the way it did. You know, there's there's a lack
26:00
Speaker 1: of testicles throughout the entire story, whether literally with Jerry
26:04
Speaker 1: Sandusky or figuratively when it comes to Graham Spaniard, and
26:08
Speaker 1: that's why the good guy's lost in this story. I'm
26:12
Speaker 1: not giving up on Graham as of yet, but I
26:14
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of confidence.
26:16
Speaker 2: Part of me, because of.
26:17
Speaker 1: My interaction with Graham on this, is still hoping that
26:21
Speaker 1: maybe Shapiro won't be the VP nominee. You know, I
26:24
Speaker 1: should be rooting for him to be the VP dominee
26:27
Speaker 1: in some ways because it again provides an opportunity for
26:31
Speaker 1: attention on the story, but I also know that's not
26:33
Speaker 1: the way it's going to work out. It's just going
26:34
Speaker 1: to drive me further crazy from an intellectual and an
26:39
Speaker 1: emotional perspective. So basically, I've learned long ago that the
26:43
Speaker 1: worst possible scenario is how this is always going to
26:46
Speaker 1: turn out, and that's the way it looks like it's
26:48
Speaker 1: going to happen when it comes to Shapiro and Graham Spaniard.
26:52
Speaker 1: Although I will continue to hold out hope until i'm
26:55
Speaker 1: one hundred percent.
26:56
Speaker 2: Positive, so just a review.
26:58
Speaker 1: Once again, I do not know for sure that at all,
27:02
Speaker 1: for sure that Josh Shapiro is actually going to be
27:05
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris's vice presidential nominee, but just in case he is,
27:09
Speaker 1: as is currently the most likely scenario, I have had
27:14
Speaker 1: my two cents voiced in the last twenty five minutes
27:19
Speaker 1: of this podcast before that decision is actually made. Obviously,
27:24
Speaker 1: if it turns out to be somebody else, I will
27:27
Speaker 1: react to that in the next episode of the podcast.
27:30
Speaker 1: If it turns out to be Shapiro, I'm sure I'll
27:32
Speaker 1: have even more to say about that whole situation in
27:37
Speaker 1: the next episode of the podcast. Now, one of the
27:39
Speaker 1: big things that has been a matter of controversy over
27:43
Speaker 1: the last couple of days with regard to Trump and
27:47
Speaker 1: Harris is the issue of debates, and I think this
27:51
Speaker 1: is representative of the entire boondoggle that the mainstream news
27:57
Speaker 1: media has allowed the Democrats to pull off with this
28:00
Speaker 1: entire switch between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and giving
28:05
Speaker 1: her the nomination without ever getting even one vote, not
28:09
Speaker 1: one vote. She has never received a vote for president,
28:13
Speaker 1: not in twenty twenty, not into twenty twenty four, and
28:17
Speaker 1: they're not even gonna have an open convention, not even
28:20
Speaker 1: gonna pretend to have an open process. This give her
28:23
Speaker 1: the nomination. And so that's that's mind blowing. It's absolutely unbelievable.
28:30
Speaker 1: I never thought that that could happen, even though I
28:34
Speaker 1: knew Democrats wanted it to happen. I never thought that
28:37
Speaker 1: could happen without Democrats being forced to pay some sort
28:40
Speaker 1: of a price. And partially because the media is completely
28:44
Speaker 1: in the tank, and partially because the Trump team dropped
28:47
Speaker 1: the ball, they have been forced to pay no price whatsoever.
28:51
Speaker 1: And not only have they been forced to pay no
28:52
Speaker 1: price whatsoever, they're even still to this day pulling off
28:58
Speaker 1: a boondoggle when it comes to the issue of debates
29:02
Speaker 1: and who agreed to what and who's pulling out of
29:05
Speaker 1: what agreement.
29:06
Speaker 2: I mean, this is this is surreal. This is absolutely surreal.
29:11
Speaker 1: And the best example of what I'm talking about here
29:14
Speaker 1: comes from The New York Times. I've talked in the
29:16
Speaker 1: past about how in the subscription era, the New York
29:21
Speaker 1: Times is at the mercy of their subscribers, and specifically
29:26
Speaker 1: activists on Twitter who, if they really, really really hate
29:30
Speaker 1: a headline will often force The New York Times to
29:35
Speaker 1: change their headline in order to placate their most active
29:40
Speaker 1: subscribers because they don't want to lose subscribers.
29:44
Speaker 2: And this debate issue created.
29:46
Speaker 1: A circumstance that is very similar to what has happened
29:50
Speaker 1: in the past, and I think is really telling about
29:53
Speaker 1: so many different aspects of this campaign, especially when it
29:57
Speaker 1: comes to the post Biden would draw media. Here was
30:01
Speaker 1: the original New York Times headline with regard to the
30:05
Speaker 1: latest when it comes to whether or not they're going
30:07
Speaker 1: to be debates between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Now
30:12
Speaker 1: to rewind here to review to provide a little bit
30:15
Speaker 1: of a context, It's important to remember that Biden went
30:20
Speaker 1: outside the normal procedure for scheduling these debates. This normally
30:26
Speaker 1: is done through the Debate Commission, but Biden, and there's
30:29
Speaker 1: all sorts of understandable conspiracy theories behind this now that
30:34
Speaker 1: we see how it all turned out. But the Biden
30:37
Speaker 1: team went around that and went directly to the Trump
30:41
Speaker 1: team to negotiate on their own a series of debates.
30:46
Speaker 1: The first one was obviously in late June on CNN,
30:51
Speaker 1: and Trump agreed to those and one of the debates
30:55
Speaker 1: that they had agreed to Biden and Trump was on
30:58
Speaker 1: September tenth on ABC. Well, obviously, since then, Biden has
31:05
Speaker 1: dropped out, and in the mind of Donald Trump and
31:10
Speaker 1: in the minds of frankly people who are remotely logical,
31:13
Speaker 1: that means that that agreement is dead now. To be fair,
31:18
Speaker 1: because I'm always fair and I'm always trying to be
31:20
Speaker 1: as factual as I possibly can be, that agreement technically,
31:25
Speaker 1: apparently I haven't seen it, but I've been told reliably
31:29
Speaker 1: that agreement referenced the Democrat and the Republican presidential nominee.
31:36
Speaker 1: And so there are those that are trying to claim
31:37
Speaker 1: that Trump made an agreement with whoever the Democratic nominee
31:42
Speaker 1: was gonna be, except neither Trump nor Biden were technically
31:49
Speaker 1: the Republican or the Democratic nominee when they did that
31:53
Speaker 1: debate in June on CNN. So to me, you cannot
31:59
Speaker 1: rely on the technical nature of that agreement because technically
32:05
Speaker 1: that first debate wouldn't have happened because they weren't the
32:08
Speaker 1: Democrat and the Republican nominees at that time. In fact, technically,
32:15
Speaker 1: I guess you could argue Harris now technically is although
32:18
Speaker 1: or will be shortly, because they're going to do this
32:20
Speaker 1: before the convention. But the Democrats haven't even had their
32:23
Speaker 1: convention yet. But to me, this is a red herring.
32:27
Speaker 1: It's quite logical to say that Trump made a deal
32:31
Speaker 1: with Biden.
32:33
Speaker 2: Harris doesn't get to inherit.
32:35
Speaker 1: That deal, especially after this boondoggle, this swindle, this switch through.
32:41
Speaker 1: I mean, Biden's not dead. If Biden was dead, or
32:44
Speaker 1: if even if Biden had resigned from the presidency, I
32:48
Speaker 1: could totally see where there would be an argument to
32:51
Speaker 1: be made here that the deal is still in play.
32:55
Speaker 1: But that's not what happened. Biden didn't die. Biden didn't
32:58
Speaker 1: even resign, which I think is an important part of
33:00
Speaker 1: this entire equation. Okay, so with that context, here was
33:04
Speaker 1: the original New York Times headline, Trump agrees to a
33:09
Speaker 1: Fox News debate with Harris on September fourth, subheadline. According
33:15
Speaker 1: to mister Trump's post on social media, the debate will
33:17
Speaker 1: take place in Pennsylvania, a crucial battle ground state, and
33:24
Speaker 1: liberals lost their fucking minds over that headline because that headline,
33:29
Speaker 1: to them indicates that Trump has agreed to a debate
33:35
Speaker 1: with Harris and makes no mention of the fact that
33:39
Speaker 1: in their minds, Trump is actually bailing out of a
33:44
Speaker 1: debate that he already agreed.
33:45
Speaker 2: To with Harris.
33:46
Speaker 1: Now, I think that's total bullshit from every logical perspective,
33:51
Speaker 1: but that's the way liberals saw it. And unfortunately, when
33:55
Speaker 1: it comes to the paper of record, if liberals squeal
33:59
Speaker 1: long and loud enough, they're going to get what they want.
34:03
Speaker 1: Because the New York Times changed that headline. The new headline,
34:08
Speaker 1: by the I don't know how long it took, wasn't
34:10
Speaker 1: very long. It was a few hours later. The new
34:12
Speaker 1: headline of the New York Times was Trump backs out
34:16
Speaker 1: of ABC debate and proposes one with Harris on Fox.
34:22
Speaker 1: That's completely different subheadline. According to Donald Trump's post on
34:26
Speaker 1: social media, the ABC News debate was quote terminated unquote
34:33
Speaker 1: once Kamal Harris replaced President Biden as the candidate. Okay, Now,
34:38
Speaker 1: the second part of that, the subheadline I actually think
34:42
Speaker 1: Trump is correct on. Trump is correct that there is
34:47
Speaker 1: no agreement between Donald Trump and Kamal Arris. There was
34:51
Speaker 1: never a negotiation between Trump and Harris that they would
34:55
Speaker 1: be doing an ABC debate on September tenth. That was
35:00
Speaker 1: never part of the deal that was never negotiated, that
35:04
Speaker 1: was never finalized because obviously Harris wasn't the candidate. So
35:10
Speaker 1: for liberals to get The New York Times to go
35:12
Speaker 1: along with us this idea that Trump is backing out
35:16
Speaker 1: of a debate that he never agreed to be part of.
35:20
Speaker 1: He never agreed to be part of an ABC debate
35:24
Speaker 1: with Kamala Harris. That never happens. You can't back out
35:28
Speaker 1: of something that you never agreed to to begin with.
35:32
Speaker 1: Is ludicrous, It's absurd. But this is the gaslighting that
35:36
Speaker 1: we've seen throughout this entire post Biden withdraw process. And
35:43
Speaker 1: they're just pretend, I'm telling you, in a month or two,
35:47
Speaker 1: it's going to be difficult to tell that Biden was
35:50
Speaker 1: ever the nominatee. They're just going to pretend that Kamal
35:53
Speaker 1: Arris ran for the nomination one Iowa New Hampshire got
35:58
Speaker 1: all the delegates, Biden was never actually the nominee. We're
36:01
Speaker 1: going to have to We're gonna memory hold that entire
36:04
Speaker 1: first debate.
36:04
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm only being partially facetious here, folks.
36:07
Speaker 1: This is where we're headed with this, but it's not
36:11
Speaker 1: doesn't make it true, and it doesn't make it right,
36:15
Speaker 1: and I don't know what's going to happen here now.
36:19
Speaker 1: I still think that Trump is using the wrong language
36:23
Speaker 1: and the wrong logic. I mean, I like the fact
36:27
Speaker 1: that he's claiming that the ABC News debate was terminated
36:30
Speaker 1: once Harris replaced Biden, But to me, he ought to
36:34
Speaker 1: be using this issue to highlight the illegitimate nature of
36:38
Speaker 1: her nomination. That's the real value to this. I don't
36:44
Speaker 1: think he's going to be able to get away with
36:46
Speaker 1: never debating Harris, especially since it appears as.
36:49
Speaker 2: If Harris is at least.
36:52
Speaker 1: Tied with him in the polls, and nationally appears to
36:54
Speaker 1: have taken the lead in the polls, and may have
36:57
Speaker 1: taken the lead from an electoral college perspective.
37:01
Speaker 2: So I don't think he's going to have the leverage
37:03
Speaker 2: to do this.
37:04
Speaker 1: And you know, there's the whole being scared of a
37:07
Speaker 1: girl thing which the liberals are using as a narrative.
37:11
Speaker 1: I don't know how you can claim Trump is afraid
37:14
Speaker 1: of debating Harris at this point when he just went
37:18
Speaker 1: into the National Association of Black Journalists, which was, you.
37:22
Speaker 2: Know, very much a lion's den.
37:24
Speaker 1: And I'm going to get to that momentarily, and obviously
37:27
Speaker 1: we're just still coming off just a couple of weeks
37:29
Speaker 1: ago the guy got shot in the head, and you know,
37:33
Speaker 1: obviously didn't treat that situation as if he was cowardly
37:37
Speaker 1: or scared of anything. So it's just absolutely bizarre that
37:41
Speaker 1: this is now becoming a legitimate narrative.
37:43
Speaker 2: Here we are at the beginning of August.
37:46
Speaker 1: My guess is they're going to have to debate, and
37:48
Speaker 1: this is all a negotiating ploy. But I am totally
37:54
Speaker 1: with Trump on this idea that he never made a
37:56
Speaker 1: deal with Harris. And I'm totally with Trump on this
37:59
Speaker 1: idea that you better stick to your guns when it
38:02
Speaker 1: comes to the platform or the outlet or the venue,
38:08
Speaker 1: because we have already seen that there are no mainstream
38:13
Speaker 1: media outlets that are going to be remotely tough on
38:17
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris. Now I don't know whether Fox News Channel
38:20
Speaker 1: would be able to pull it off either, but at
38:22
Speaker 1: least you'd have a chance on Fox News Channel. But
38:25
Speaker 1: the entire media industrial complex has made it abundantly clear
38:30
Speaker 1: post Biden withdraw that they are disqualified from hosting a
38:35
Speaker 1: debate with Kamala Harris. And that ought to be another
38:38
Speaker 1: part of the argument that Trump makes here. I have
38:41
Speaker 1: not heard him make that argument, but he absolutely should.
38:44
Speaker 1: But I still believe there's going to be some sort
38:47
Speaker 1: of a debate, that we're still very much in the
38:50
Speaker 1: negotiation element of this whole thing. But the media is
38:54
Speaker 1: making it very clear that they're not buying what is
38:57
Speaker 1: obviously the case that Trump never agreed to a debate
39:01
Speaker 1: with Kamlala Harris. That never happened all right. Now, with
39:05
Speaker 1: regard to the National Association of Black Journalists event that
39:09
Speaker 1: happened just after I taped the last episode of the podcast,
39:13
Speaker 1: which was frustrating because there was an awful lot of
39:16
Speaker 1: very interesting stuff that I would have liked to have
39:18
Speaker 1: gotten to in episode number one hundred and seventy seven.
39:21
Speaker 2: But I'll get to it now. Now.
39:23
Speaker 1: First of all, let me say that it's depressing an
39:28
Speaker 1: absurd that there even is such a thing as the
39:31
Speaker 1: National Association of Black Journalists in twenty twenty four.
39:35
Speaker 2: It's just crazy.
39:37
Speaker 1: I mean, there's the inherent racism of the idea that
39:40
Speaker 1: there's a group of black journalists. You could never do that,
39:45
Speaker 1: certainly for white journalists. That's obvious. But even more important
39:49
Speaker 1: than that, not only are we living in an era
39:52
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four, which is clearly not you know,
39:57
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two in the Deep South.
40:00
Speaker 2: I mean, there's.
40:00
Speaker 1: Completely different worlds now, but especially when it comes to
40:05
Speaker 1: the realm of media or journalists, because black people have
40:10
Speaker 1: not been facing systematic racism in this country for a
40:14
Speaker 1: very long time. You can argue over when that effectively ended,
40:19
Speaker 1: even though the black activists will tell you that it's
40:22
Speaker 1: worse today than it's ever been, which is touttly ridiculous.
40:26
Speaker 2: But you, in no way, shape or form.
40:28
Speaker 1: Could argue that black journalists or black media members are
40:33
Speaker 1: suffering at all because of the color of their skin.
40:39
Speaker 1: It's beyond ludicrous, it's lunacy. The reality is that in
40:45
Speaker 1: the vast majority of cases, the vast majority of cases
40:50
Speaker 1: in the journalism world, in the media world, people benefit
40:55
Speaker 1: because their skin is a dark, darker tone than others,
41:00
Speaker 1: that they can call themselves black. Being able to call
41:03
Speaker 1: yourself black, plausibly or otherwise is a huge advantage in
41:10
Speaker 1: almost every aspect of the news media and in journalism.
41:15
Speaker 1: And there are no elements of journalism that I am
41:19
Speaker 1: remotely aware of. If you can come up with one,
41:22
Speaker 1: I'd be happy to consider it. But I cannot think
41:25
Speaker 1: of a realm of journalism or the news media where
41:30
Speaker 1: being quote unquote black hinders your career at all at all.
41:39
Speaker 1: Could there theoretically be one, I guess so, but I
41:42
Speaker 1: can't think of one. And I think about this topic more,
41:45
Speaker 1: probably more than anybody else does. So in the vast
41:49
Speaker 1: majority of cases, it's an advantage, And I can't think
41:52
Speaker 1: of a circumstance where it's a disadvantage to be black.
41:57
Speaker 1: And yet we're going to pretend that we still need
42:00
Speaker 1: a national Association of Black journalists in twenty twenty four.
42:04
Speaker 1: So that's the first part of this story that no
42:07
Speaker 1: one is willing to say, but I just did. And
42:10
Speaker 1: then there's the issue of Trump deciding to be there
42:15
Speaker 1: in person and take questions.
42:17
Speaker 2: Now, Kamala Harris did not do that.
42:20
Speaker 1: I think that was partially what was appealing to Trump,
42:24
Speaker 1: that he could say that he went and Harris didn't.
42:27
Speaker 1: And there's been a lot of attention as to what happened.
42:31
Speaker 2: Did Trump blow? This is Trump making too.
42:35
Speaker 1: Much of Harris's racial heritage or racial identity. I'm gonna
42:42
Speaker 1: get to the end at the beginning here and say
42:45
Speaker 1: that I think this was mostly a wash, partially because
42:49
Speaker 1: we are so divided, especially on the issue of race,
42:53
Speaker 1: but and because you know, people have already made their
42:56
Speaker 1: determinations about Trump. But yeah, there were things that he
43:01
Speaker 1: did that were stupid and wrong and were representative of
43:06
Speaker 1: the wrong messaging when it comes to Harris and race.
43:10
Speaker 1: But I also think that going into the lions Den
43:14
Speaker 1: and exposing just how unbelievably biased, especially the first moderator
43:21
Speaker 1: or host, ABC's Rachel Scott was against him, I think
43:26
Speaker 1: had some value for Trump. So showing up had some value.
43:30
Speaker 1: Taking their best shots had some value. Exposing their extreme
43:35
Speaker 1: bias against him, I think had some value. I don't
43:39
Speaker 1: think it was as valuable as it could have been
43:42
Speaker 1: if Trump was smart about this or strategic about this,
43:45
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to the issue of broadening this
43:49
Speaker 1: topic to DEI where it actually matters to people's lives
43:53
Speaker 1: and isn't just theoretical as to what Kamala Harris thinks
43:58
Speaker 1: of her racial heritage or how she I identifies when
44:01
Speaker 1: it comes to race. But there are three clips that
44:04
Speaker 1: I want to play for you from this event. The
44:07
Speaker 1: first is the one that starts it all off, and
44:11
Speaker 1: it's really remarkable because Rachel Scott, an ABC News reporter,
44:18
Speaker 1: really exposes herself as being an activist. I mean, there's
44:24
Speaker 1: no other way to put it. She is an activist
44:26
Speaker 1: here and she is breathing fire. Now, I'm all for
44:29
Speaker 1: tough questioning, but this is so over the top as
44:33
Speaker 1: to be almost hilarious. And you know, I think Trump
44:37
Speaker 1: actually handled this halfway decently. But this is the very
44:42
Speaker 1: beginning of the entire event. This is ABC News. Is
44:46
Speaker 1: Rachel Scott going after Trump with everything she possibly could.
44:51
Speaker 3: It's not true. You have told four congressmen women of
44:54
Speaker 3: color who were American citizens to go back to where
44:56
Speaker 3: they came from. You have used words like animal and
45:00
Speaker 3: rabbit to describe black district attorneys. You've attacked black journalists,
45:04
Speaker 3: calling them a loser, saying the questions that they ask
45:07
Speaker 3: are quote stupid and racist. You've had dinner with a
45:10
Speaker 3: white supremacist at your marologue resort. So my question, sir,
45:15
Speaker 3: now that you are asking black supporters.
45:17
Speaker 2: To vote for you, why should.
45:19
Speaker 3: Black voters trust you after you have used language like that.
45:24
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I don't think I've ever been
45:26
Speaker 4: asked the question so in such a horrible manner. A
45:31
Speaker 4: first question, you don't even.
45:33
Speaker 2: Say hello, how are you?
45:35
Speaker 4: Are you with ABC? Because I think they're a fake news.
45:38
Speaker 2: Network, a terrible network.
45:41
Speaker 4: And I think it's disgraceful that I came here in
45:46
Speaker 4: good spirit. I love the black population of this country.
45:50
Speaker 4: I've done so much for the black population of this country,
45:55
Speaker 4: including employment, including Opportuniti Zone with Senator Tim Scott of
46:01
Speaker 4: South Carolina, which is one of the greatest programs ever
46:05
Speaker 4: for black workers and black entrepreneurs.
46:08
Speaker 2: I've done so much.
46:10
Speaker 4: And you know, and I say this, Historically, black colleges
46:14
Speaker 4: and universities were out of money. There were stone call broke,
46:18
Speaker 4: and I saved them and I gave them long term financing,
46:22
Speaker 4: and nobody else was doing it. I think it's a
46:24
Speaker 4: very rude introduction. I don't know exactly why you would
46:28
Speaker 4: do something like that. And let me go a step further.
46:31
Speaker 4: I was invited here, and I was told my opponent,
46:34
Speaker 4: whether it was Biden or Kamala, I was told my
46:38
Speaker 4: opponent was going to be here. It turned out my
46:41
Speaker 4: opponent isn't here. You invited me under false pretense, and
46:44
Speaker 4: then you said you can't do it with zoom. Well
46:48
Speaker 4: you know where's zoom. She's going to do it with
46:50
Speaker 4: zoom and she's not coming, and then you were half
46:52
Speaker 4: an hour la. Just so we understand, I have too
46:55
Speaker 4: much respect for you to be late. They couldn't get
46:57
Speaker 4: their equipment working or something that I.
47:00
Speaker 2: Think it's a very nasty question. I have answered the question.
47:04
Speaker 4: I have been the best president for the black population
47:09
Speaker 4: since Abraham Lincoln.
47:12
Speaker 3: President Johnson, he signed the voting right back for.
47:14
Speaker 4: You just start off a question and answer period, especially
47:17
Speaker 4: when you're thirty five minutes late because you couldn't get.
47:20
Speaker 2: Your equipment to work.
47:21
Speaker 4: In such a hostile manner, I think it's a disgrace.
47:25
Speaker 1: Now, the part of that attack on Trump, and that's
47:29
Speaker 1: what I was. I mean, it was a verbal attack
47:31
Speaker 1: on Trump. I mean, I don't think he's being a
47:35
Speaker 1: weenie for saying, well, gee, couldn't you just say, you know, welcome,
47:39
Speaker 1: nice to meet you, you know, how are you?
47:41
Speaker 2: That type of thing.
47:42
Speaker 1: I do think there's something to be said for that.
47:46
Speaker 1: But if I'm Trump, I'm actually thrilled that Scott exposed
47:50
Speaker 1: who she really is there. But the part that I
47:54
Speaker 1: think would have made it even more effective from Trump's perspective,
47:58
Speaker 1: There's no way Trump ever would have thought to do this.
48:01
Speaker 1: But if I was in a situation, I would like
48:04
Speaker 1: to believe that I would have countered with something along
48:09
Speaker 1: the lines of, Okay, you know what, I'll take your
48:11
Speaker 1: best shot. But can we please imagine for a moment,
48:15
Speaker 1: if Kamala Harris was sitting here, and she's not because
48:20
Speaker 1: she didn't show up, But if Kamala Harris was here,
48:24
Speaker 1: is there any chance that you, Rachel or anybody else
48:28
Speaker 1: in this panel would have immediately asked her the following question?
48:33
Speaker 1: Vice President Harris, after it was already clear that Jesse
48:37
Speaker 1: small Led had faked a hate crime, you publicly supported
48:43
Speaker 1: him in very dramatic fashion on Twitter. It turned out
48:48
Speaker 1: you were very, very wrong. But did you do that
48:52
Speaker 1: because you were pandering to black people or because you're
48:57
Speaker 1: just not that smart?
48:59
Speaker 2: Which is it?
49:01
Speaker 1: Nobody would have asked Kamala Harris that question, especially not
49:06
Speaker 1: at the National Association of Black Journalists, But that would
49:09
Speaker 1: have been a much more legitimate question than what Trump
49:14
Speaker 1: was asked. Yet they would never think of doing that
49:19
Speaker 1: because they see themselves as being on Kamala Harris's side.
49:23
Speaker 1: They've also completely forgotten about the Jusse small Att situation,
49:28
Speaker 1: because that's what happens.
49:29
Speaker 2: When you are a member of the liberal elite.
49:32
Speaker 1: You can crap your pants in public, which is what
49:35
Speaker 1: Harris did in supporting Juss small At, calling it a
49:41
Speaker 1: modern day lynching.
49:44
Speaker 2: She was totally wrong.
49:46
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a former prosecutor and she's this dumb.
49:50
Speaker 1: To me, this goes forget about the racial pandrick, this
49:53
Speaker 1: goes to her lack of intelligence, her lack of ability
49:57
Speaker 1: to understand reality. If you think Jesse Smallette was telling
50:01
Speaker 1: the truth, it was worthy of defense. And the days
50:05
Speaker 1: after that now infamous episode in Chicago where he allegedly
50:10
Speaker 1: got beaten up by guys in red hats who said,
50:13
Speaker 1: this is Maga country, two o'clock in the morning, in.
50:16
Speaker 2: The middle of.
50:18
Speaker 1: Incredibly cold temperatures, it was absurd. And yet Kamal Harris
50:25
Speaker 1: was just that dumb. She was that dumb and or
50:30
Speaker 1: that willing to pander to black people and to gay people,
50:34
Speaker 1: because that's what Jesse small Att was doing this for.
50:39
Speaker 1: He was pretending that he was attacked because of his
50:43
Speaker 1: race and his sexuality. But it was fake and Kamal
50:48
Speaker 1: Harris was too dumb to understand that, and she'll never
50:51
Speaker 1: be asked about it, even though they would have been
50:54
Speaker 1: perfectly legitimate in this kind of a situation. If you're
50:57
Speaker 1: going to do that to Trump, then that's the least
51:00
Speaker 1: you could do to Harris. But Trump doesn't think that way,
51:03
Speaker 1: and he gets all sorts of opportunities that he has
51:06
Speaker 1: not taken advantage of, and instead he tends to fall
51:10
Speaker 1: into traps and I think he did so to a
51:13
Speaker 1: certain degree when the issue came up of whether or
51:17
Speaker 1: not Kamala Harris is actually black. Now, this is a
51:24
Speaker 1: situation that to me is way more complex than people
51:29
Speaker 1: are giving a credit for. I can understand both sides
51:33
Speaker 1: of this. I mean, the reality is that she did
51:38
Speaker 1: not grow up quote unquote as a black person in America.
51:44
Speaker 1: So there's the cultural issue, there's also the genetic issue,
51:50
Speaker 1: and then there's the issue of can you be half
51:52
Speaker 1: Indian and can you be half black or in this case, Jamaican.
51:57
Speaker 1: And she's certainly not African American, which makes us even
52:00
Speaker 1: more complicated because you can be black without our person
52:04
Speaker 1: of color without being African American. I mean, the media
52:07
Speaker 1: has actually done a decent job of not calling her
52:11
Speaker 1: an African American because she's clearly not in any way,
52:14
Speaker 1: shape or form African American.
52:15
Speaker 2: But then again, she did go to an historically black college,
52:19
Speaker 2: Howard University.
52:20
Speaker 1: But then again, about nine percent of Howard University students
52:25
Speaker 1: or do not identify as black, so that's not proof
52:29
Speaker 1: of anything either. So all of this gets very complicated
52:33
Speaker 1: and very muddied, and I get why Trump, or I
52:38
Speaker 1: think I know why Trump was wading into this to
52:41
Speaker 1: try to show Harris to be a phony. Jadie Vance
52:45
Speaker 1: has called her a chameleon because she'll change her colors
52:48
Speaker 1: depending on the circumstances. I get that that's a narrative
52:51
Speaker 1: that makes sense, but that's not really what Trump did here. Instead,
52:55
Speaker 1: he tried to make it sound like she was actually
52:58
Speaker 1: an Indian and is now suddenly a black person. He
53:03
Speaker 1: doesn't mention it as part of the reason why he
53:05
Speaker 1: is very familiar with Harris from a different era than
53:09
Speaker 1: the American public is familiar with her, is that he,
53:13
Speaker 1: as well as his daughter, donated money on multiple occasions
53:18
Speaker 1: to Kamala Harris's campaign to be the Attorney General of California,
53:24
Speaker 1: which frankly, I don't think has gotten nearly enough attention
53:28
Speaker 1: because that's.
53:29
Speaker 2: A mark against Trump right there.
53:31
Speaker 1: But when Trump says he was familiar with Kamal Arris
53:34
Speaker 1: for a long time. He doesn't say that part, and
53:37
Speaker 1: the right with media, you won't tell you that part.
53:39
Speaker 1: But the reason why you knew Kamal Harris was because
53:42
Speaker 1: he had contributed on multiple occasions to her campaign as
53:46
Speaker 1: attorney general.
53:49
Speaker 2: To be attorney general in California.
53:51
Speaker 1: But here was Trump responding to this issue of Kamala
53:55
Speaker 1: Harris's racial identity.
53:58
Speaker 4: And she was so is of Indian heritage, and she
54:02
Speaker 4: was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was
54:05
Speaker 4: black until a number of years ago when she happened
54:08
Speaker 4: to turn black. And now she wants to be known
54:10
Speaker 4: as black. So I don't know is she Indian or
54:13
Speaker 4: is she black?
54:14
Speaker 3: She is always I.
54:17
Speaker 4: Respect either one, but she obviously doesn't because she was
54:21
Speaker 4: Indian all the way and then all of a sudden,
54:23
Speaker 4: she made a turn and she went she became a black.
54:28
Speaker 4: I think somebody should look into that too. When you
54:30
Speaker 4: ask a continue in a very hostile, nasty tone.
54:33
Speaker 2: It's a direct question.
54:35
Speaker 1: Now there's a lot of criticism for Trump, and I
54:37
Speaker 1: understand it on this issue of Okay, why are you
54:41
Speaker 1: focusing on this? This is playing right into the median
54:44
Speaker 1: narrative that Republicans are racist and you're just saying that
54:48
Speaker 1: you know that she's not black, and that that you know.
54:51
Speaker 1: Somehow this gets you mired into an issue that's.
54:56
Speaker 2: Not productive for you, and I get it.
54:59
Speaker 1: I don't think it's produc at all because it allows
55:01
Speaker 1: the media to take this completely out of context, not
55:05
Speaker 1: provide any context when it comes to how Harris actually
55:10
Speaker 1: grew up. The media, you know, they seem to have
55:13
Speaker 1: now created this rule which I don't fully understand, that
55:17
Speaker 1: you can be two totally different things and just switching
55:21
Speaker 1: back and forth whenever it behooves you to do so.
55:26
Speaker 1: I realize we're living in a world where if you
55:28
Speaker 1: want to be a man, one day, you can be
55:29
Speaker 1: a man, and the next day, if you change your mind,
55:31
Speaker 1: you can be a woman. So I guess that's somewhat
55:34
Speaker 1: consistent with the way the media looks at these things now,
55:37
Speaker 1: but that's not the way.
55:38
Speaker 2: It ought to be.
55:39
Speaker 1: I don't think that you get to have both. I mean, look,
55:43
Speaker 1: it's part of who you are. I get that people
55:45
Speaker 1: are multi ethnic and multi racial, but politically, I don't
55:51
Speaker 1: think it's almost inherent that if you're both, then you're
55:55
Speaker 1: not really quote unquote black.
55:58
Speaker 2: Isn't that it's so fact?
56:00
Speaker 1: Oh right, because we've been told that being black is
56:04
Speaker 1: a unique and huge part of anyone's existence.
56:09
Speaker 2: But if you're in.
56:11
Speaker 1: Most of your life you portrayed yourself as being Indian,
56:16
Speaker 1: doesn't that inherently at least bring in the question whether
56:20
Speaker 1: or not you're actually quote unquote a black person. I
56:23
Speaker 1: get that you could be half black or half a
56:26
Speaker 1: person of color and half Indian, and there's nothing wrong
56:29
Speaker 1: with that. In fact, there's a lot that's good about it.
56:32
Speaker 1: But unfortunately, we don't live in a world where nuance
56:36
Speaker 1: can work, especially not in politics, and Trump is particularly
56:40
Speaker 1: bad at this. So there's no way that Trump is
56:42
Speaker 1: going to be able to pull off nuance, and this
56:45
Speaker 1: is not a topic that works for him, because it's
56:48
Speaker 1: just handing a weapon to the media to take out
56:51
Speaker 1: of context, make it sound like it's racist, make it
56:53
Speaker 1: sound like you're you're calling Harris a liar, or you're
56:57
Speaker 1: denying the black element of her experience.
57:01
Speaker 2: And you have no right to do that because you're
57:03
Speaker 2: a white guy.
57:04
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it's it's distracting because there's a
57:07
Speaker 1: whole lot of other things that are way way more
57:10
Speaker 1: important to be talking about. I don't think it's racist,
57:14
Speaker 1: as the media is pretending that it is.
57:17
Speaker 2: But that's the way the media works. And Trump ought
57:19
Speaker 2: to understand that. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be smart
57:22
Speaker 2: enough to do so. He's also not smart enough to.
57:26
Speaker 1: Take advantage of the one area of this particular topic
57:30
Speaker 1: that can really work to his favor. And he was
57:34
Speaker 1: handed it on a silver platter and he basically said, hmmm,
57:40
Speaker 1: that looks nice, but not right now, maybe later. And
57:43
Speaker 1: I'm referring to the issue of whether or not Kamala
57:48
Speaker 1: Harris is a DEEI Diversity Equity and Inclusion Vice President
57:53
Speaker 1: of the United States. She absolutely is, with one hundred
57:58
Speaker 1: percent certainty, she is. And you know how we know
58:02
Speaker 1: because Joe Biden bragged about her being a DEI vice president.
58:08
Speaker 1: And that's exactly what Donald Trump should have said. Unfortunately,
58:13
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, maybe it's because he's not really conservative
58:17
Speaker 1: and it's not really part of his DNA, maybe he's
58:18
Speaker 1: just not very smart. He clearly hadn't thought it through
58:22
Speaker 1: and he therefore I think he got hesitant and he
58:25
Speaker 1: gave a very very weak answer.
58:27
Speaker 2: But here is what happened.
58:29
Speaker 1: When Trump was given the chance to hit a home
58:32
Speaker 1: run and instead he basically took a pitch, and it
58:38
Speaker 1: was infuriating. And here's what it sounded like at the
58:41
Speaker 1: National Association of Black Journalists event.
58:44
Speaker 3: It's a direct question, sir, do you believe that Vice
58:46
Speaker 3: President Kamala Harris is a DEI higher as somebody?
58:49
Speaker 2: Really?
58:50
Speaker 4: I mean I really don't know, could be, could be, There.
58:52
Speaker 1: Are some and there are That to me was by
58:56
Speaker 1: far the biggest mistake that Trump made during this entire situation,
59:01
Speaker 1: because to me, the real issue that matters to people is, Okay,
59:08
Speaker 1: how does that impact my life? Does it really matter
59:12
Speaker 1: how Kamala Harris identifies racially?
59:15
Speaker 2: I mean, she's multiracial. You know, she can be.
59:18
Speaker 1: Proud of her her Jamaican heritage, she can be proud
59:21
Speaker 1: of her Indian heritage.
59:22
Speaker 2: There's nothing wrong with that.
59:24
Speaker 1: And as I've already said, getting mired in that is
59:26
Speaker 1: basically a no win proposition. However, when it comes to
59:31
Speaker 1: the issue of her credentials and how she got to
59:34
Speaker 1: where she is, it is absolutely relevant that she is
59:38
Speaker 1: the personification of Dei, which is how this actually impacts
59:44
Speaker 1: people's lives, especially people who are not black. Or not Hispanic,
59:52
Speaker 1: and especially those who are Asian or white, who are
59:56
Speaker 1: being forced to endure some level of this crimination because
1:00:01
Speaker 1: other people are getting benefits that they're not getting thanks
1:00:05
Speaker 1: to DEI, And so for Trump to take a pass
1:00:10
Speaker 1: on that is inexplicable, it's stupid. It's another indication that
1:00:14
Speaker 1: he's not really a conservative, it's not a part of
1:00:18
Speaker 1: who he is, and that he's just not very good
1:00:21
Speaker 1: at this. And it makes me question even more so
1:00:25
Speaker 1: than I already have, whether or not Trump and his
1:00:29
Speaker 1: team are capable of bringing Harris down from this honeymoon high.
1:00:36
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