Latest / Politix / Jimmy Fuel, Jimmy Fire, Jimmy That Which I Desire
Transcript
- 0:00But I'm going to be tuning in tonight,
- 0:01you know,
- 0:02with my bottle of Tylenol.
- 0:03SPEAKER_00: Wait, wait, wait.
- 0:04SPEAKER_00: How do we do it?
- 0:04Because the DC ABC station is Sinclair owned and so they're
- 0:07still boycotting.
- 0:08SPEAKER_01: Oh.
- 0:10SPEAKER_01: I don't actually know how you watch network television.
- 0:21SPEAKER_00: This week,
- 0:22SPEAKER_00: a big roundup of development since last week,
- 0:25SPEAKER_00: including the Charlie Kirk Memorial,
- 0:27SPEAKER_00: the firing and unfiring of Jimmy Kimmel,
- 0:30and various Trump administration efforts to use the Kirk
- 0:33killing as cover to kind
- 0:35SPEAKER_00: of acclimate the public to a more undisguised form of authoritarianism.
- 0:39SPEAKER_00: Plus,
- 0:39SPEAKER_00: as promised,
- 0:40SPEAKER_00: a conversation about Jeff Duncan,
- 0:42the former Republican running as a Democrat to become the
- 0:45governor of Georgia,
- 0:46and the implications of that race for big tentism in the
- 0:49Democratic Party.
- 0:50SPEAKER_00: If you want to hear the whole conversation,
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: you can upgrade your subscription to paid at politics.fm.
- 0:59SPEAKER_00: Hey, everyone.
- 1:00SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Politics Podcast.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: I'm Brian Boitler.
- 1:02SPEAKER_00: I'm Matthew Glacius.
- 1:03SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of ground to cover this week.
- 1:06SPEAKER_00: If we were going to go chronologically,
- 1:08SPEAKER_00: I suppose we'd start with the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel from ABC.
- 1:12SPEAKER_00: But do you want to start there or with the Charlie Kirk Memorial,
- 1:15SPEAKER_00: which came later,
- 1:17SPEAKER_00: but I think was maybe a better Rosetta Stone for the...
- 1:22SPEAKER_01: Yeah,
- 1:22SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 1:23SPEAKER_00: you know that I couldn't bring myself to watch live,
- 1:26but I do think that I've gotten a representative sample from
- 1:29other people's
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: coverage.
- 1:30SPEAKER_00: So that's my.
- 1:31SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you know, I don't know what you want to say.
- 1:36SPEAKER_01: You know, I.
- 1:38SPEAKER_01: They did the Charlie Cook Memorial as like a big,
- 1:41SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 1:42SPEAKER_01: political rally type thing,
- 1:44SPEAKER_01: which,
- 1:44SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 1:45SPEAKER_01: one could sort of get very prissy about and say,
- 1:50SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 1:50SPEAKER_01: whatever.
- 1:51SPEAKER_01: But I think it's authentic to Charlie Cook's life and work.
- 1:55SPEAKER_01: He was like super interested in Republican Party politics.
- 1:58SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 1:59SPEAKER_01: But you did see like a real.
- 2:01SPEAKER_00: And like selling swag, too.
- 2:03SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 2:03SPEAKER_01: That was a big part of TV.
- 2:04SPEAKER_01: But you did see an incredibly striking split screen between his widow,
- 2:08SPEAKER_01: who did a kind of classy,
- 2:11SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 2:12SPEAKER_01: Christian talk about forgiveness.
- 2:16SPEAKER_01: And then Donald Trump, who came on and was like, like.
- 2:22SPEAKER_01: Charlie Kirk.
- 2:24Trump did like a little like a vision of like Ezra Klein's take
- 2:27on Charlie Kirk.
- 2:29SPEAKER_01: But then like went negative on Kirk and was like,
- 2:32SPEAKER_01: it's bad that he was like a friendly,
- 2:35SPEAKER_01: happy warrior who liked to talk to people.
- 2:37SPEAKER_01: I hate my enemies and I want to crush them.
- 2:39SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
- 2:40and I actually think that – I think that there was something
- 2:42interesting about how
- 2:43SPEAKER_00: he said that because he actually – he was reading,
- 2:46SPEAKER_00: reading,
- 2:46SPEAKER_00: reading.
- 2:47SPEAKER_00: He got to this part in the speech where he's about to say,
- 2:51SPEAKER_00: like Erica Kirk said,
- 2:52SPEAKER_00: that there should be grace and forgiveness about stuff like this.
- 2:55SPEAKER_00: But then he derails himself because he doesn't actually believe that.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: But what was interesting to me is that in Erica Kirk's speech,
- 3:01SPEAKER_00: she talks about forgiving the person who killed her husband.
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
- 3:04SPEAKER_00: And in Donald Trump's speech,
- 3:06SPEAKER_00: the part where he says,
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: that's where I disagree with Erica,
- 3:09he transforms the object of hatred or forgiveness from the
- 3:18person who committed the
- 3:19SPEAKER_00: crime to my opponents.
- 3:21SPEAKER_00: He says, I hate my opponents.
- 3:22SPEAKER_00: I don't want what's best for them.
- 3:24SPEAKER_00: And I think that this...
- 3:26SPEAKER_00: There's something really sick,
- 3:29deeply embedded in there that they can't really distinguish
- 3:32between Tyler Robinson
- 3:34SPEAKER_00: and the ACLU or whatever.
- 3:35SPEAKER_01: Well,
- 3:35SPEAKER_01: and,
- 3:36SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 3:36SPEAKER_01: and I mean,
- 3:36SPEAKER_01: this has been like the really real,
- 3:39SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 3:40SPEAKER_01: substance of the kind of post-Kirk,
- 3:43SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 3:43SPEAKER_01: clampdown.
- 3:44SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 3:45I continue to express a good amount of agnosticism about the
- 3:49actual substance of
- 3:50SPEAKER_01: Charlie Kirk's life and work.
- 3:53But I'm quite familiar with the life and work of Donald Trump
- 3:56and very familiar
- 3:57with the discourse that the Republican Party has put forward
- 4:00since Donald Trump
- 4:02SPEAKER_01: was,
- 4:03SPEAKER_01: since Kirk's murder.
- 4:05SPEAKER_01: And they just keep conflating,
- 4:10SPEAKER_01: murdering somebody,
- 4:12SPEAKER_01: incitement to murder,
- 4:15SPEAKER_01: being sort of graceless and non-classy in the wake of somebody's murder,
- 4:23SPEAKER_01: and just being critical of people.
- 4:27SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 4:28SPEAKER_01: And doing exactly the move that Donald Trump did,
- 4:32where it's like the fact that Kirk was murdered demonstrates
- 4:37the fundamental
- 4:38illegitimacy of any strongly worded criticism of anybody in
- 4:42conservative politics.
- 4:44SPEAKER_01: And I guess, you know, like you've seen this in all these like
- 4:49SPEAKER_01: the left has no idea what they've awakened kind of like tweets.
- 4:53SPEAKER_01: And like, I don't know what to tell you.
- 4:55SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't shoot Charlie Kirk.
- 4:57SPEAKER_01: Nobody I know shot Charlie Kirk.
- 5:00SPEAKER_01: Nobody I know said it would be a good idea to shoot Charlie Kirk.
- 5:04There are definitely people who said things in the aftermath of
- 5:08his murder that I
- 5:10SPEAKER_01: think were not like super,
- 5:14SPEAKER_01: uh,
- 5:15SPEAKER_01: you know, decorous or appropriate.
- 5:19SPEAKER_01: But like,
- 5:20SPEAKER_01: I literally cannot find an example of,
- 5:23SPEAKER_01: like,
- 5:24SPEAKER_01: a person saying,
- 5:27SPEAKER_01: like,
- 5:27SPEAKER_01: I believe that a targeted campaign of assassinations against influential
- 5:32SPEAKER_01: conservative political pundits is a good idea.
- 5:34SPEAKER_01: Like, nobody thinks that.
- 5:36SPEAKER_00: You didn't even,
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: like,
- 5:37SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 5:39SPEAKER_00: like,
- 5:40an analogy near and dear to your heart is that after George
- 5:42Floyd was killed,
- 5:44SPEAKER_00: you did see,
- 5:44SPEAKER_00: like,
- 5:45SPEAKER_00: progressive leaders or organizations get swept up.
- 5:48in,
- 5:49in like radical ideas about how to respond to that,
- 5:51that I think some of them later regret.
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: And like,
- 5:53SPEAKER_00: you can't even find,
- 5:54SPEAKER_00: uh,
- 5:56SPEAKER_00: like,
- 5:57SPEAKER_00: like mid weight progressive,
- 5:59SPEAKER_00: whatever groups,
- 6:01SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 6:02SPEAKER_00: um,
- 6:02SPEAKER_00: there's nobody,
- 6:02SPEAKER_01: not like the most unhinged fucking sunrise movement.
- 6:05SPEAKER_01: Like nobody is doing this.
- 6:07SPEAKER_01: Like they have just,
- 6:09SPEAKER_01: there's a mix of like,
- 6:10they made up this construct of like widespread celebration of
- 6:14Charlie Kirk's murder
- 6:15SPEAKER_01: and
- 6:16SPEAKER_01: and have been perpetuating just,
- 6:20SPEAKER_01: like,
- 6:20SPEAKER_01: a breathtakingly illiberal vision in which,
- 6:25SPEAKER_01: like,
- 6:26SPEAKER_01: just to express strong disagreement.
- 6:29And,
- 6:30you know,
- 6:30and I mean,
- 6:31something that,
- 6:31like,
- 6:32I think is important about politics,
- 6:34right?
- 6:34SPEAKER_01: Like,
- 6:35SPEAKER_01: the essential paradox of American politics,
- 6:39SPEAKER_01: not American politics,
- 6:40SPEAKER_01: like all politics,
- 6:41SPEAKER_01: is that,
- 6:42SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 6:45the federal government just like spends huge amounts of money
- 6:48on all different
- 6:48SPEAKER_01: kinds of programs.
- 6:50And if that money is wasted,
- 6:52the consequences of wasteful spending like are enormous.
- 6:55SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 6:55SPEAKER_01: Like tens,
- 6:56hundreds of millions of people's lives are like rendered
- 6:59dramatically worse by
- 7:01SPEAKER_01: wasteful federal spending.
- 7:03SPEAKER_01: At the same time,
- 7:03SPEAKER_01: when the spending is valuable,
- 7:05like thousands of people will die because they are losing
- 7:09medical treatments that
- 7:10SPEAKER_01: the Trump administration has cut off.
- 7:12SPEAKER_01: And like, that's not like me being like a,
- 7:15SPEAKER_01: It's just, like, the stakes of politics are high.
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: What the federal government does is incredibly important.
- 7:21SPEAKER_01: And you just,
- 7:22SPEAKER_01: like,
- 7:22SPEAKER_01: need to be able to,
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: like,
- 7:24SPEAKER_01: maintain in your head,
- 7:26SPEAKER_01: like,
- 7:26SPEAKER_01: Elon Musk,
- 7:27SPEAKER_01: Donald Trump,
- 7:27and Doge are directly culpable for the deaths of thousands of
- 7:32people through their,
- 7:33SPEAKER_01: like,
- 7:34SPEAKER_01: tampering with U.S.
- 7:35SPEAKER_01: aid.
- 7:36SPEAKER_01: But,
- 7:36SPEAKER_01: like,
- 7:36SPEAKER_01: also,
- 7:37SPEAKER_01: it's not like how if I saw somebody,
- 7:41SPEAKER_01: like,
- 7:41SPEAKER_01: beating somebody up on the street corner—
- 7:43Like,
- 7:43I have a moral obligation to,
- 7:45like,
- 7:46step in with,
- 7:47like,
- 7:48violence and intervene.
- 7:49SPEAKER_01: Like, it's politics.
- 7:51SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know what to say.
- 7:52SPEAKER_01: Like, we have elections.
- 7:53SPEAKER_01: We have debates.
- 7:55SPEAKER_01: Trump has done a lot of, like, illegal shit and stuff like that.
- 8:01SPEAKER_01: But,
- 8:01SPEAKER_01: like,
- 8:01SPEAKER_01: as you were saying the other day,
- 8:02SPEAKER_01: like,
- 8:03SPEAKER_01: just,
- 8:03SPEAKER_01: like,
- 8:03SPEAKER_01: kicking tons of people off of Medicaid is,
- 8:06SPEAKER_01: like,
- 8:06SPEAKER_01: squarely within the legitimate powers of an electoral...
- 8:10SPEAKER_01: But like, it's also horrible and will kill lots of people.
- 8:13SPEAKER_01: And like that.
- 8:14SPEAKER_01: But like that's that's just what politics is.
- 8:17SPEAKER_01: And you can't get up there and be like,
- 8:20SPEAKER_01: well,
- 8:20for Iglesias to point out that people's lives are at stake in
- 8:24like the policy
- 8:26disputes of the Trump era is tantamount to like I'm calling for
- 8:30people to be
- 8:30SPEAKER_01: murdered because I mean,
- 8:32SPEAKER_00: I'm not.
- 8:33SPEAKER_01: I'm just talking about the objective stakes of like high level politics.
- 8:38SPEAKER_00: I mean,
- 8:39SPEAKER_00: like,
- 8:40SPEAKER_00: more so even than in Trump's speech,
- 8:41if you go listen to – Stephen Miller gave a totally deranged
- 8:44speech at the Kirk
- 8:46SPEAKER_00: Memorial.
- 8:47SPEAKER_00: And I think you can see in that speech a few things.
- 8:49SPEAKER_00: One is that,
- 8:49SPEAKER_00: like,
- 8:50SPEAKER_00: they want this or something,
- 8:52SPEAKER_00: some pretextual occurrence,
- 8:53SPEAKER_00: to be the end of that kind of politics,
- 8:55SPEAKER_00: right?
- 8:56SPEAKER_00: Like, that's – they are tired of the fact that the things that they do –
- 9:01SPEAKER_00: like with power,
- 9:02SPEAKER_00: the legitimate things they do with power are unpopular and unsustainable
- 9:07SPEAKER_00: politically.
- 9:08And rather than moderate them or adopt new views or focus on
- 9:12different things that
- 9:13SPEAKER_00: might carry the day in elections better,
- 9:16they just want to repress all opposition so that they can just
- 9:19do things that they
- 9:21SPEAKER_00: want to do without ever having to really own them.
- 9:23SPEAKER_00: I think that's been clear for a while.
- 9:24SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's sort of like the
- 9:26We were talking about this aspect of republicanism even after
- 9:31Mitt Romney lost and
- 9:32republicans were so desperate to keep the tax cutting part of
- 9:35their agenda in their
- 9:37agenda that they made up a whole story about how immigration
- 9:41was the reason that
- 9:42SPEAKER_00: they lost the 2012 election.
- 9:43SPEAKER_00: It was just like anything – we will make any change –
- 9:46to our agenda that we have to,
- 9:48to try again in 2016,
- 9:50but not change that.
- 9:52SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 9:53SPEAKER_00: And,
- 9:54SPEAKER_00: and if you,
- 9:55SPEAKER_00: if you'll never let it go,
- 9:57then eventually logic points to Stephen Miller is where you
- 10:00just look around for
- 10:01SPEAKER_00: bad things happening in America,
- 10:02SPEAKER_00: point to them and say,
- 10:04SPEAKER_00: this means that we no longer have to actually contest ideas or defend the
- 10:08SPEAKER_00: consequences of our healthcare policy.
- 10:10SPEAKER_00: So that's like one half of it.
- 10:13SPEAKER_00: And the other thing,
- 10:14SPEAKER_00: is that like the, the naked, where like Erica Kirk says, I forgive him.
- 10:19Like the,
- 10:20maybe the only person at that whole memorial who used the
- 10:23proper pronoun,
- 10:24right.
- 10:24SPEAKER_00: For the, for the culprit here.
- 10:27SPEAKER_00: And,
- 10:28SPEAKER_00: and the,
- 10:29SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 10:30Trump and Miller and everyone else referring to they as like
- 10:33the people responsible
- 10:34SPEAKER_00: for killing Kirk.
- 10:35SPEAKER_00: It, it actually like, it makes, it makes it hard to credit the,
- 10:42any Republican in good standing who shows any measure of grace
- 10:47or magnanimity.
- 10:48I do not want to question the motives or psychology of somebody
- 10:53who was very
- 10:53SPEAKER_00: recently widowed because it feels rude to do that.
- 10:57SPEAKER_00: But also,
- 10:57SPEAKER_00: I think that there's value in her words,
- 11:00even if she didn't really quite mean them or she said them
- 11:03because that's the
- 11:04SPEAKER_00: appropriate thing to say.
- 11:05But it is,
- 11:06I think,
- 11:07worth noting that it's probably easier to forgive a murderer
- 11:12if like your entire social universe has agreed that he didn't
- 11:16actually kill anyone
- 11:17but quote unquote they did right like that is the milieu in
- 11:20which he's saying I
- 11:21forgive this guy Tyler Robinson is it because like like you are
- 11:27redirecting the
- 11:28anger that you would normally direct at him at like thousands
- 11:31of random innocents
- 11:32SPEAKER_00: and I think that
- 11:34SPEAKER_00: Yeah,
- 11:34SPEAKER_00: I think that,
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: like,
- 11:35SPEAKER_00: that is contributing to...
- 11:36SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 11:37SPEAKER_01: maybe,
- 11:37SPEAKER_01: but I also think,
- 11:38SPEAKER_01: like,
- 11:39SPEAKER_01: I saw some takes,
- 11:41SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 11:41SPEAKER_01: in the wake of the memorial that were,
- 11:43SPEAKER_01: like,
- 11:45SPEAKER_01: from people on,
- 11:45SPEAKER_01: like,
- 11:46SPEAKER_01: both sides politically were,
- 11:47SPEAKER_01: like,
- 11:47SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 11:48SPEAKER_01: this really shows how we're,
- 11:49SPEAKER_01: like...
- 11:51SPEAKER_01: you know, like, we're divided into two separate countries, right?
- 11:54SPEAKER_01: And I actually kind of felt up there on stage that you saw that,
- 11:58SPEAKER_01: like,
- 11:58SPEAKER_01: as much as we are divided in an era of polarization,
- 12:01SPEAKER_01: like,
- 12:02SPEAKER_01: there are divides within the divide.
- 12:04SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 12:04SPEAKER_01: Like, Eric...
- 12:06SPEAKER_01: Kirk's speech was both just like very literally like Christian doctrine.
- 12:13SPEAKER_01: Charlie Kirk,
- 12:14SPEAKER_01: as I said last week,
- 12:16like something that's notable about him is that he's an
- 12:19evangelical Protestant,
- 12:21SPEAKER_01: which is like an important part of Republican Party based politics,
- 12:25SPEAKER_01: but like not that many like prominent conservative takesters.
- 12:31SPEAKER_01: are in the evangelical space.
- 12:34SPEAKER_01: Stephen Miller is Jewish, like you and me.
- 12:38Donald Trump is like a nominal Christian,
- 12:40but like,
- 12:41yeah,
- 12:41he doesn't even like really fake it.
- 12:43SPEAKER_01: Two Corinthians.
- 12:44SPEAKER_01: Right, but like he's not like a person who goes to church, right?
- 12:48SPEAKER_01: Or like reflects on the themes of the Gospels when he's doing his...
- 12:53SPEAKER_01: And this is just like,
- 12:54SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 12:54there's only two political parties in the United States and
- 12:57this like continues to
- 12:59SPEAKER_01: be a large and diverse society.
- 13:00I mean,
- 13:00I remember there was a comparable thing actually after the
- 13:05Emanuel church shooting.
- 13:07SPEAKER_01: In South Carolina,
- 13:09SPEAKER_01: which is obviously a liberal coded institution,
- 13:12SPEAKER_01: but it's like literally a church.
- 13:14SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 13:15SPEAKER_01: And the black church is a pillar of the Democratic Party,
- 13:18but also is an exception in Democratic Party spaces in being
- 13:24like being very
- 13:25SPEAKER_01: Christian.
- 13:26And some of the victims,
- 13:27victims,
- 13:28parents were really talking about forgiveness there.
- 13:30SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I appreciated what they were saying, but it's also like.
- 13:34SPEAKER_01: That's not my religion in either direction.
- 13:37SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 13:38SPEAKER_01: Like, it's fine.
- 13:39SPEAKER_01: And not that I'm like,
- 13:40SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 13:41SPEAKER_01: was up there being like,
- 13:41SPEAKER_01: well,
- 13:42SPEAKER_01: we need to give like an Old Testament speech.
- 13:44SPEAKER_01: But,
- 13:44SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 13:45I'm a secular humanist consequentialist who wants to talk after
- 13:49every noteworthy
- 13:50event about what are constructive forward-looking actions we
- 13:54can take to make life
- 13:55SPEAKER_01: better on this earth.
- 13:57SPEAKER_01: I'm not interested in that.
- 14:00SPEAKER_01: forgiveness or people's eternal salvation.
- 14:02SPEAKER_01: These are just, you know, different modes of thought that are present.
- 14:05SPEAKER_01: And,
- 14:05SPEAKER_01: like,
- 14:05SPEAKER_01: clearly,
- 14:07Donald Trump and the leaders of the Trump administration are
- 14:10primarily interested
- 14:12not in Charlie Kirk as a person or the killer as a person or in
- 14:17anybody's spiritual
- 14:19SPEAKER_01: welfare,
- 14:20but they are interested in instrumentalizing this as part of a
- 14:24crackdown on
- 14:25SPEAKER_01: opposition political activity.
- 14:27And everything that they've done from this like vaguely worded
- 14:32Antifa order to just
- 14:34SPEAKER_01: like the insistence,
- 14:36SPEAKER_01: right?
- 14:36Like the FBI is like,
- 14:38you know,
- 14:39they're like trying to find a second shooter,
- 14:42right?
- 14:42SPEAKER_01: Because like if they can find even a tiny wider conspiracy, right?
- 14:49SPEAKER_01: That can be a pretext for looking at more things.
- 14:52SPEAKER_01: And it takes us to Jimmy Kimmel,
- 14:54SPEAKER_01: which is like the most extreme outlier version of this,
- 15:01SPEAKER_01: where Brendan Carr at the FCC is like,
- 15:04I'm going to take advantage of the passions of the moment here
- 15:09to just like...
- 15:10SPEAKER_01: try to use the FCC as a general censorship institution.
- 15:15SPEAKER_01: Or Meghan McCain,
- 15:16SPEAKER_01: just this morning,
- 15:18SPEAKER_01: says on Twitter,
- 15:19SPEAKER_01: even if they bring Jimmy Kimmel back,
- 15:21SPEAKER_01: he and every late night host,
- 15:23SPEAKER_01: daytime talk show host,
- 15:24and network anchor that traffics in nothing but Republican hate
- 15:27knows it's only a
- 15:28SPEAKER_01: matter of time before they are all canceled and removed from air.
- 15:31SPEAKER_01: It's not if, but when.
- 15:33SPEAKER_01: Tick tock.
- 15:34SPEAKER_01: Right?
- 15:35And so,
- 15:35like,
- 15:35you know,
- 15:36Meghan McCain is not the chair of the FCC,
- 15:38but,
- 15:38like,
- 15:39this is a...
- 15:40SPEAKER_01: This is a vibe that's out there.
- 15:42Like we are going to use the power of the state plus the
- 15:46financial clout of,
- 15:48SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 15:49our aligned rich people to just like shut down critics of
- 15:55conservative politics.
- 15:56SPEAKER_00: So it's it's the Megan McCain quotes interesting,
- 16:00SPEAKER_00: especially in like the full context of what happened with Kimmel,
- 16:03SPEAKER_00: which is that,
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 16:04SPEAKER_00: Brendan Carr goes on Benny Johnson's podcast.
- 16:07SPEAKER_00: I like I personally find it hilarious.
- 16:10That this like act of censorship that that was rooted nominally
- 16:17in the idea that
- 16:18SPEAKER_00: the public interest isn't served by like partisan late night hosts saying
- 16:22SPEAKER_00: inaccurate things on the Benny Johnson show where Benny's like a like a
- 16:26SPEAKER_00: well-established like plagiarist and fascist.
- 16:28So so Brendan Carr is there and he says there need to be
- 16:31consequences for Kimmel
- 16:33SPEAKER_00: and we can do this the easy way or the hard way.
- 16:35SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 16:36And there's a merger underway between two companies that own a
- 16:46ton of ABC stations.
- 16:47SPEAKER_00: They need approval for Brendan Carr.
- 16:50Disney has already tangled with the Trump administration and
- 16:53capitulated.
- 16:53SPEAKER_00: And so they seemingly like both got the message.
- 16:57And first these individual stations canceled Kimmel so they
- 17:04wouldn't air him anymore.
- 17:05SPEAKER_00: And then ABC took him off altogether.
- 17:07SPEAKER_00: And that created – like without –
- 17:10SPEAKER_00: the benefit of any kind of like boycott movement or,
- 17:13SPEAKER_00: or like organizing hub for protests,
- 17:15SPEAKER_00: a huge backlash,
- 17:16SPEAKER_00: lots of cancellations of Hulu and Disney plus and things like that.
- 17:20Like celebrities saying that they wouldn't work with Disney
- 17:22anymore unless they
- 17:23SPEAKER_00: reverse this decision.
- 17:24And so sure enough,
- 17:25they reversed the decision,
- 17:26but that puts a,
- 17:28like that tosses the ball.
- 17:30If we're just going to accept the corrupt framework that we're
- 17:33living in for a
- 17:33SPEAKER_00: second back to Brendan Carr,
- 17:35SPEAKER_00: is he going to block the merger now?
- 17:37SPEAKER_00: Is he going to try to find other avenues for reprisals against Disney?
- 17:42SPEAKER_00: And I don't know.
- 17:43SPEAKER_00: I like I don't think this worked out super well for Republicans.
- 17:48SPEAKER_00: This like experiment that Brendan Carr took them on.
- 17:51No,
- 17:51this is one of the most like even even Ted Cruz was like,
- 17:55that's gangster talk.
- 17:56SPEAKER_00: Like, I like Brendan Carr, but what the hell are you doing?
- 17:58SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, like like Meghan McCain.
- 18:02SPEAKER_00: left it ambiguous enough in her comment there that,
- 18:04SPEAKER_00: like,
- 18:05SPEAKER_00: that if you press her on it,
- 18:06SPEAKER_00: she might say,
- 18:07SPEAKER_00: no,
- 18:07SPEAKER_00: what I'm saying is that,
- 18:08SPEAKER_00: like,
- 18:08SPEAKER_00: you know,
- 18:09SPEAKER_00: that style of comedy that's,
- 18:11SPEAKER_00: like,
- 18:12partisan in one direction on broadcast TV is just not going to
- 18:16succeed and will
- 18:18SPEAKER_00: fail as a business enterprise because it won't get enough ratings.
- 18:22SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of, like, a matter of when.
- 18:25SPEAKER_00: But,
- 18:25SPEAKER_00: like,
- 18:25SPEAKER_00: as you say,
- 18:26SPEAKER_00: I think if Brendan Carr was like,
- 18:28SPEAKER_00: okay,
- 18:28SPEAKER_00: fine,
- 18:29SPEAKER_00: you'd,
- 18:29SPEAKER_00: like,
- 18:30SPEAKER_00: we're going to have to do this the hard way now,
- 18:32SPEAKER_00: that Meghan McCain would be there on the sidelines cheering them on,
- 18:35SPEAKER_00: cheering him on.
- 18:36SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think that's right.
- 18:40SPEAKER_01: You know, but I think...
- 18:42SPEAKER_01: I think we saw with Carr, right?
- 18:43SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 18:44SPEAKER_01: it was just one of the clearest cycles of overreach and backlash that,
- 18:51SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 18:51SPEAKER_01: we've really seen here.
- 18:53SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 18:54To the point where like now Carr is like denying that he said
- 18:56what he said.
- 18:57SPEAKER_01: You know, like it was just one of those.
- 19:01SPEAKER_01: I mean, sometimes people fuck up.
- 19:04SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 19:04SPEAKER_01: Like,
- 19:04SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's like,
- 19:06it's not like the fuck up was abusing the FCC's power to get
- 19:10Jimmy Kimmel off the
- 19:11SPEAKER_01: air,
- 19:12SPEAKER_01: but it was like doing it so unsubtly.
- 19:17SPEAKER_01: You know,
- 19:18SPEAKER_01: so like with,
- 19:18we had this parallel case where like when David Ellison was
- 19:26going to buy Paramount,
- 19:29SPEAKER_01: it really seems like
- 19:31As part of getting merger approval,
- 19:35like CBS agreed to settle a kind of bogus Trump lawsuit.
- 19:41SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what I think happened.
- 19:43SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 19:44SPEAKER_01: But I...
- 19:46SPEAKER_01: I could not prove in a court of law that that's what happened.
- 19:49SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 19:49Like,
- 19:50now,
- 19:50maybe if I had extensive discovery powers,
- 19:53I could get to the bottom of it.
- 19:54SPEAKER_01: But I bet I couldn't.
- 19:55SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 19:56SPEAKER_01: Like, I bet they handled that.
- 19:58SPEAKER_01: Ted Cruz said this was like gangster stuff.
- 20:00SPEAKER_01: But like, it actually wasn't gangster stuff.
- 20:02SPEAKER_01: Like what they did with the Paramount merger, that's gangster stuff.
- 20:07where it was all done through implication and innuendo and
- 20:10things perhaps whispered
- 20:12SPEAKER_01: off the record in oral conversations.
- 20:15SPEAKER_01: What Carr did with Jimmy Kimmel was done like an idiot,
- 20:19SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 20:19SPEAKER_01: who's just like stating on the record,
- 20:21SPEAKER_01: like,
- 20:21SPEAKER_01: I'm doing crimes.
- 20:23SPEAKER_01: Um,
- 20:24SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 20:24SPEAKER_01: and that's I don't know,
- 20:27SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 20:27SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 20:28SPEAKER_01: sometimes,
- 20:29SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 20:29SPEAKER_01: the bad guys fuck up.
- 20:31SPEAKER_01: And that's part of what happens here.
- 20:32SPEAKER_01: The public opinion reaction was really, really strong.
- 20:35SPEAKER_01: You know, people were mad, got mad at Disney about it.
- 20:39SPEAKER_01: You just lacked the menace of like, you know, but you don't really know.
- 20:46SPEAKER_01: Of, like, an effective authoritarian move?
- 20:49Do you think the experience here is going to tend to make
- 20:55similarly situated
- 20:56SPEAKER_00: corporate entities less likely to bend the knee,
- 21:00SPEAKER_00: whether the threats are explicit or...
- 21:03SPEAKER_00: implicit or private or whatever that like,
- 21:06SPEAKER_00: this was the first time where it wasn't just like,
- 21:08SPEAKER_00: like all the law,
- 21:10SPEAKER_00: all the law firms have capitulated to Trump.
- 21:12SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 21:12SPEAKER_00: I think came out looking bad.
- 21:14SPEAKER_00: All the ones that stood up to him came off looking good.
- 21:16SPEAKER_00: Harvard has done a better job than most of the other universities.
- 21:20SPEAKER_00: Trump has targeted like a pattern is emerging here,
- 21:23SPEAKER_00: but I think this is the first time where,
- 21:27SPEAKER_00: uh,
- 21:28SPEAKER_00: like the,
- 21:29SPEAKER_00: the incentives kind of inverted and,
- 21:31SPEAKER_00: uh,
- 21:32SPEAKER_00: If you're looking at what happened to ABC and Disney over the last week,
- 21:37you might come away thinking that there's a huge price for
- 21:44capitulating and there's
- 21:46a big reward for standing up and that it might change the
- 21:51calculus as Trump gets
- 21:54SPEAKER_00: weaker,
- 21:55SPEAKER_00: less popular –
- 21:56Um,
- 21:57like,
- 21:58like,
- 21:58like the bell,
- 21:58the bell,
- 21:59the bell can't really be on wrong in a sense.
- 22:01SPEAKER_00: And like,
- 22:02SPEAKER_00: if,
- 22:02SPEAKER_00: uh,
- 22:02SPEAKER_00: if CBS does something else like that looks capitulative,
- 22:07SPEAKER_00: it is,
- 22:07SPEAKER_00: everyone's going to be like,
- 22:08SPEAKER_00: okay,
- 22:09SPEAKER_00: like,
- 22:09SPEAKER_00: like did Brendan Carr threaten you to do this?
- 22:11SPEAKER_00: And are you just selling out the first amendment for, uh, for profit?
- 22:16SPEAKER_01: Yes,
- 22:17SPEAKER_01: although I do – I think that the level of clarity – you know,
- 22:21SPEAKER_01: because,
- 22:21SPEAKER_01: like,
- 22:21SPEAKER_01: one thing that happens here,
- 22:23SPEAKER_01: right,
- 22:24SPEAKER_01: that's relevant in all these cases is that,
- 22:26SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 22:29SPEAKER_01: Disney as a corporation is very much in the talent business.
- 22:36SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 22:37SPEAKER_01: Like –
- 22:38SPEAKER_01: They can be fine with or without Jimmy Kimmel.
- 22:41SPEAKER_01: And in fact,
- 22:42like one of the reasons that The Kimmel Show in particular was
- 22:45vulnerable to this
- 22:46SPEAKER_01: kind of thing is that like the late night franchises have been like,
- 22:51SPEAKER_01: the economics of them have gotten much worse than they used to be.
- 22:55SPEAKER_01: If this was happening in 2006,
- 22:59when having a popular late night host was like a really
- 23:02important part of being a
- 23:03SPEAKER_01: big media company,
- 23:04SPEAKER_01: I think it would have been harder to go after him.
- 23:06SPEAKER_01: But Disney was clearly facing backlash from other people in Hollywood.
- 23:13SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
- 23:13SPEAKER_01: Who were like, yo, this is bad.
- 23:17SPEAKER_01: Most people,
- 23:18SPEAKER_01: most of the time,
- 23:19SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 23:20prefer not to like stand up for political principles if they
- 23:24can get away with it.
- 23:26SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 23:27SPEAKER_01: Because like to credibly threaten to like a major Hollywood movie studio,
- 23:31like maybe I don't want to work with you if you do the wrong
- 23:33thing here means you
- 23:35SPEAKER_01: might need to make sacrifice on your own part.
- 23:38Part of the deal with the CBS thing is like because everybody
- 23:43has plausible deniability.
- 23:46SPEAKER_01: Like you can go on making your Paramount movie and be like,
- 23:50SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
- 23:51SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 23:52SPEAKER_01: whereas like what happened with Disney was just it was so over the top.
- 23:58SPEAKER_01: It was so high profile.
- 23:59Carr not only threatened them in advance,
- 24:01but he took credit after it happened.
- 24:03SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 24:04SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 24:05SPEAKER_01: Like Trump never said like when CBS settled the lawsuit,
- 24:09SPEAKER_01: what Trump said was that that vindicated his position in the lawsuit.
- 24:14SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 24:15He wasn't like,
- 24:15so you can see my meritless lawsuit paid off due to my FCC
- 24:20bullying.
- 24:21So,
- 24:21you know,
- 24:22it's like definitely like,
- 24:24yes,
- 24:24like a noteworthy aspect of Trump,
- 24:27too.
- 24:29is that there has been much less popular mobilization against
- 24:34Donald Trump.
- 24:36SPEAKER_01: A lot of tech companies,
- 24:38SPEAKER_01: for example,
- 24:39felt during Trump's first administration that their workforce
- 24:43was primarily
- 24:44SPEAKER_01: left-of-center people.
- 24:46And that they therefore like had to pay some attention to the
- 24:51sensibilities of sort
- 24:53SPEAKER_01: of rank and file software engineers in California on a variety of topics.
- 24:58SPEAKER_01: That is completely out the window in Trump too, right?
- 25:02Some of that is because like there has been opinion shift among
- 25:06the people
- 25:06SPEAKER_01: involved,
- 25:07SPEAKER_01: but a lot of it is not opinion shift.
- 25:09SPEAKER_01: It's just demobilization.
- 25:12SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 25:12SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 25:12SPEAKER_01: Like we haven't seen women's march scale activism.
- 25:17SPEAKER_01: Like there's just been.
- 25:18SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't think that's it's been rooted into this no kings framework.
- 25:22SPEAKER_00: And I think it's in a way it's it's a bigger protest movement.
- 25:25It's just more distributed and it's more overarching theme as
- 25:30opposed to like women's science.
- 25:33SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think it's been smaller, though, like in terms of the number.
- 25:37SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 25:37SPEAKER_01: And it's been more.
- 25:39SPEAKER_01: There's been more like.
- 25:42SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 25:44resistance people being mad at Democrats and less like
- 25:49resistance people being in
- 25:51SPEAKER_01: the streets against Trump and just like more of like,
- 25:56SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 25:59SPEAKER_01: A lack of like strong resistance vibes,
- 26:04SPEAKER_01: even as like many of Trump's actions are pretty unpopular.
- 26:09SPEAKER_01: There's been selective pushback in different areas.
- 26:11SPEAKER_01: And some of it,
- 26:12SPEAKER_01: I think,
- 26:12is that like people don't feel confident about the forward
- 26:16looking electoral
- 26:17SPEAKER_01: prospects of the Democratic Party.
- 26:19SPEAKER_01: Which influences the calculus on all of these things.
- 26:22SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
- 26:23SPEAKER_00: I mean,
- 26:23I like I do think that you see like the Democratic leadership
- 26:26standing in a row in
- 26:27SPEAKER_00: the same direction as the protest movement,
- 26:29SPEAKER_00: like Hakeem Jeffries.
- 26:32SPEAKER_00: You know,
- 26:32when Sherry Redstone agreed to the terms of the of the bribe
- 26:36Trump requested,
- 26:38SPEAKER_00: there were there were Democrats in Congress who like this is a problem.
- 26:41SPEAKER_00: But,
- 26:42SPEAKER_00: like,
- 26:43SPEAKER_00: Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter to her that was very good,
- 26:45SPEAKER_00: but it was only signed by her,
- 26:47SPEAKER_00: Bernie Sanders,
- 26:47SPEAKER_00: and Ron Wyden,
- 26:49SPEAKER_00: which is not enough,
- 26:50SPEAKER_00: I don't think,
- 26:51to change anyone's incentives when the whole Republican Party
- 26:53is aligned behind
- 26:54SPEAKER_00: Trump and his abuses of power,
- 26:56SPEAKER_00: right?
- 26:57SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I agree with that.
- 26:58SPEAKER_00: But now, after what ABC did, Hakeem Jeffries...
- 27:04SPEAKER_00: is kind of like just putting everyone on notice.
- 27:06Like the statute of limitations for all this stuff is five
- 27:08years and Trump is not
- 27:10SPEAKER_00: going to be in power forever.
- 27:11SPEAKER_00: And we have long memories.
- 27:12And I think like that is the kind of thing that needs to be
- 27:17like front and center of
- 27:20SPEAKER_00: all progressive discourse,
- 27:21SPEAKER_00: really,
- 27:22SPEAKER_00: not just from the elected officials,
- 27:23SPEAKER_00: if there's going to be stuff like this ABC reversal,
- 27:28SPEAKER_00: if like,
- 27:30if you want to create a really powerful counter incentive to
- 27:34people just bending
- 27:35SPEAKER_00: the knee.
- 27:38SPEAKER_00: And like, with that change, I think that like the
- 27:43SPEAKER_00: the sense of powerlessness and directionlessness will tend to disappear.
- 27:49Because everyone involved who has stake in what's happening
- 27:56will be able to think
- 27:57ahead to a time when we can try to figure out what was really
- 28:01going on in this
- 28:02SPEAKER_00: nine-month period,
- 28:04SPEAKER_00: meet out accountability for anything that was illegal or improper,
- 28:08You know,
- 28:09like I that it is possible that in two years,
- 28:12like documents will emerge.
- 28:13SPEAKER_00: Internal communications will emerge from Paramount that show.
- 28:17SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 28:17Like that,
- 28:18you know,
- 28:19Brendan Carr said,
- 28:20you better settle this case or we'll kill your merger.
- 28:23SPEAKER_00: And that would be a crime.
- 28:24SPEAKER_01: Yes, I agree with that.
- 28:26SPEAKER_01: But I think that I don't know how to put it like.
- 28:32SPEAKER_01: I think that what happens in the here and now from civil society,
- 28:37SPEAKER_01: while not distinct from or unrelated to what Democrats in Congress do,
- 28:43SPEAKER_01: is ultimately more important.
- 28:46important that like the thing about the ABC backlash is just
- 28:56like there was a
- 28:57SPEAKER_01: backlash to ABC like in America,
- 29:01SPEAKER_01: you know what I mean?
- 29:01And like from people who were there so that the sense of
- 29:07consequences and accountability
- 29:10SPEAKER_01: wasn't just like,
- 29:11SPEAKER_01: well,
- 29:11SPEAKER_01: if Democrats do well in 2026 and 2028 and then they retake power,
- 29:17SPEAKER_01: like they may come back.
- 29:19SPEAKER_01: You know,
- 29:19SPEAKER_01: and like Edis,
- 29:20SPEAKER_01: it was like,
- 29:21SPEAKER_01: right now I'm concerned that like people are going to cancel Hulu.
- 29:26SPEAKER_01: That like major directors are going to not work with our studio.
- 29:30That the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise,
- 29:33which has been like flagging a little bit lately.
- 29:36SPEAKER_01: I've ever been the dominant force in entertainment for a long time.
- 29:40SPEAKER_01: Like...
- 29:41SPEAKER_01: May have even more difficulty getting steam that like Pedro Pascal,
- 29:47who like is the front man of one of our signature Star Wars
- 29:52streaming shows and is
- 29:53SPEAKER_01: quite vocally progressive on many topics may make trouble for us.
- 29:57SPEAKER_01: Right.
- 29:57SPEAKER_01: And you just didn't see any of that.
- 30:00SPEAKER_01: around CBS Paramount type stuff,
- 30:03SPEAKER_01: some of which is because the,
- 30:04SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 30:05SPEAKER_01: the facts did not emerge in the exact same way,
- 30:08SPEAKER_01: some of which is because it just happened at an earlier time in history,
- 30:12SPEAKER_01: some of which is because like,
- 30:14SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 30:14SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 30:15SPEAKER_01: I don't know,
- 30:16SPEAKER_01: there's a lot of different factors,
- 30:17SPEAKER_01: but like,
- 30:17SPEAKER_01: I just think that is a different thing that occurred.
- 30:22And,
- 30:22you know,
- 30:23and it's just important to keep in mind that like,
- 30:29you know,
- 30:29what
- 30:31SPEAKER_01: And again,
- 30:32like the attempted clampdown that Trump led was like grounded
- 30:38in the idea that like
- 30:41SPEAKER_01: rank and file conservatives are like fired up and outraged about this.
- 30:45And part of the misfire on Brendan Carr is that like they
- 30:49started facing a lot of
- 30:50SPEAKER_01: intra-coalitional issues.
- 30:52SPEAKER_01: dissent, right?
- 30:54SPEAKER_01: Now, it took a couple days.
- 30:55SPEAKER_01: I mean,
- 30:56people in the Republican Party sort of like put their finger to
- 30:59the wind for 36 to
- 31:01SPEAKER_01: 48 hours.
- 31:02But like it started to become clear that like various people
- 31:06wanted to get off that
- 31:08sort of bandwagon because of the reaction that was like
- 31:10occurring in America,
- 31:12SPEAKER_01: not because of Hakeem Jeffries's
- 31:14SPEAKER_01: tweets and like this,
- 31:16SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 31:17is also why like ultimately like some of the other Trump things
- 31:23that have like
- 31:25SPEAKER_01: basically not worked out,
- 31:26SPEAKER_01: like the National Guard deployment to Los Angeles was like,
- 31:30SPEAKER_01: I think like the citizens of Los Angeles sort of,
- 31:34SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 31:35SPEAKER_01: appropriately denied Trump the escalating riot that he wanted to see.
- 31:40SPEAKER_01: They like
- 31:42SPEAKER_01: expressed negativity about the decision,
- 31:46SPEAKER_01: but like also did so in that case,
- 31:49SPEAKER_01: like a calm,
- 31:50SPEAKER_01: disciplined way,
- 31:51SPEAKER_01: which was good.
- 31:52And then people like freaked out about Jimmy Kimmel,
- 31:54like which was also good.
- 31:56SPEAKER_01: And it's just like,
- 31:56SPEAKER_01: you know,
- 31:57SPEAKER_01: responding in the here and now on a mass society level is important.
- 32:01SPEAKER_00: Well, so look, like we may get a chance to test
- 32:05SPEAKER_00: Both halves of the theory,
- 32:06because I think that there are some things afoot that don't
- 32:09have the cultural
- 32:10SPEAKER_00: element that the Disney Kimmel situation did.
- 32:16Because like the,
- 32:17you know,
- 32:17the thing Brendan Carr did kind of,
- 32:21it fits into two contexts.
- 32:22Like one is purely the post Kirk hothouse Republican effort to
- 32:27try to use it as a
- 32:28SPEAKER_00: pretext for crackdown.
- 32:29But like the other part is this sort of unrelated,
- 32:32like omni descent into lawlessness.
- 32:35SPEAKER_00: So like at the same time as Brendan Carr does this,
- 32:41SPEAKER_00: You know,
- 32:41Trump posted a message for Pam Bondi on True Social calling on
- 32:46her to to indict his
- 32:48SPEAKER_00: enemies,
- 32:49SPEAKER_00: even if it means firing the Republican U.S.
- 32:52SPEAKER_00: attorney in eastern Virginia.
- 32:54SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 32:55And so then that prosecutor resigns and there's reporting here
- 32:58and there that that
- 32:59SPEAKER_00: will presage presage indictments of Jim Comey,
- 33:04SPEAKER_00: maybe Letitia James,
- 33:05SPEAKER_00: and that there will be obviously like
- 33:07pretextual bad they probably won't stand up especially with
- 33:11trump having been out
- 33:11there asking for them um but like does that happen or does the
- 33:17administration uh
- 33:20retreat on its own seeing that the public isn't really with
- 33:23them on this stuff and
- 33:24even though it's not like it contains none of the cultural
- 33:27import of of the disney
- 33:28corporation well also we saw well but then but then if they do
- 33:32go ahead like what
- 33:33SPEAKER_00: happens then like would there be
- 33:36mass mobilization against the weaponization of law enforcement
- 33:40in this sort of naked way.
- 33:41SPEAKER_00: Right.
- 33:41SPEAKER_00: Like like where on the one hand,
- 33:44SPEAKER_00: Trump would just be dictating indictments of people he doesn't like.
- 33:47SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile,
- 33:48like apparently there's a videotape of Tom Holman taking fifty
- 33:51thousand dollars in
- 33:52SPEAKER_00: a cash bribe.
- 33:53And the reporting is that this was like during the Biden
- 33:56administration,
- 33:58like by the
- 33:59SPEAKER_00: The Biden DOJ,
- 34:00SPEAKER_00: for like good and bad reasons,
- 34:02SPEAKER_00: did not release the videotape before the election.
- 34:04SPEAKER_00: And then Trump came in and they killed the whole investigation.
- 34:07Like with that on with that out there and suddenly a bunch of
- 34:12like indictments of
- 34:13Trump's enemies being rolled out and they're thin and get
- 34:16laughed out of court or
- 34:17SPEAKER_00: whatever.
- 34:18SPEAKER_00: Do you see people realizing,
- 34:20SPEAKER_00: OK,
- 34:20SPEAKER_00: like we need to be in the streets for more than just like raw censorship,
- 34:24SPEAKER_00: First Amendment style abuses of power?
- 34:27SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
- 34:27SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a good, it's a good question.
- 34:29SPEAKER_01: I think we should, we should take a break and then, you know, deliver.
- 34:33SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
- 34:34SPEAKER_01: Just deliver the answers to this question.
- 34:37SPEAKER_01: Cause it's gonna, it's gonna all feed it.
- 34:40SPEAKER_00: It'll be a good challenge.
- 34:41SPEAKER_00: If you want to hear us answer all those great questions,
- 34:44SPEAKER_00: you can go to politics.fm and upgrade your subscription.