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Lindsey Graham's Legacy and Ro Khanna's Detainment Stunt · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

0:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch.
0:05
Speaker 2: Grab a stool next to Greg Corumbus of Radio America
0:07
Speaker 2: and Jim Garrity of National Review.
0:10
Speaker 3: Free Martini's coming up.
0:13
Speaker 4: Really glad you're with us for the Monday edition of
0:15
Speaker 4: The Three Martini Lunch. Going to be one of our
0:17
Speaker 4: longer editions today, A lot to get to in a
0:20
Speaker 4: very big first, Martini and Jim. Many people woke up
0:24
Speaker 4: to this news Sunday morning. Others woke up to phone alerts,
0:29
Speaker 4: including me, in the middle of the night on Saturday.
0:33
Speaker 4: If you had been told that we're going to get
0:34
Speaker 4: news of the passing of a Republican senator, I think
0:37
Speaker 4: most of us know what name we would have expected.
0:40
Speaker 4: And we'll actually talk about how that looks to be
0:42
Speaker 4: getting better a little bit later in today's podcast. But no, unfortunately,
0:46
Speaker 4: it was the shocking news that South Carolina Center Lindsey
0:49
Speaker 4: Graham had passed away suddenly at the age of seventy one.
0:52
Speaker 4: We now know it was from an aortic dissection, and
0:55
Speaker 4: based on the medical explanations that we're getting, and anytime
0:58
Speaker 4: you have an a order prop and it's cracking, you're
1:01
Speaker 4: in big trouble. And that's unfortunately what happened with Lindsey Graham.
1:05
Speaker 4: And so obviously he was first of all scheduled to
1:08
Speaker 4: be on Meet the Press and possibly other shows on
1:10
Speaker 4: Sunday morning, but all the shows scrambling to adjust their content.
1:13
Speaker 4: President Trump making himself available by phone for a number
1:17
Speaker 4: of shows, but certainly Meet the Press, and first of all,
1:19
Speaker 4: just talking about how it was very shocking for him
1:22
Speaker 4: to hear the news because he had just talked to
1:24
Speaker 4: Lindsay Gram.
1:25
Speaker 3: So what makes it even strangers that I got a
1:27
Speaker 3: call last night sometime, you know, the early evening, maybe
1:32
Speaker 3: in the sevens, and he called and he said, we're
1:36
Speaker 3: all set for the Save America Act. He was pushing
1:38
Speaker 3: the Save America Act like crazy. He got back, said
1:41
Speaker 3: he just landed from Ukraine. I said, that's a long
1:45
Speaker 3: trip to make. He said, he sounded a little tired,
1:47
Speaker 3: but perfect. But it's a little bit tired. I had
1:50
Speaker 3: a right to be. And he was a worker, so
1:53
Speaker 3: he was really a worker. But he sounded great, actually,
1:56
Speaker 3: but he actually said he was tired, but he wanted
2:01
Speaker 3: to pass to say of America Act. And I said, well,
2:04
Speaker 3: we're going to get it done, Lindsey. We're going to
2:05
Speaker 3: get it done. I'll see you like soon. We thought
2:07
Speaker 3: we might even meet today. And then that was it.
2:11
Speaker 3: And that was, you know, very around the time. It
2:14
Speaker 3: couldn't have been much longer. It could have been his
2:17
Speaker 3: last call. I don't know exactly, but I got a
2:19
Speaker 3: message about one o'clock in the morning from one of
2:23
Speaker 3: the people at his office that he had passed away.
2:25
Speaker 3: I said, I just can't believe it. He was like
2:29
Speaker 3: a member of the family to me. It's very tough. Actually,
2:32
Speaker 3: it's amazing.
2:33
Speaker 4: It's one of the more somber times you'll ever hear
2:35
Speaker 4: President Trump. And he also said to Kristen Walker right
2:38
Speaker 4: after that, what a skilled politician Lindsey Graham was.
2:41
Speaker 3: He was such an advocate. He was, you know, if
2:43
Speaker 3: he wanted to get something, and you know, he had
2:46
Speaker 3: a unique ability. He was able to deal with Democrats
2:49
Speaker 3: and report if I had a problem, a real problem.
2:52
Speaker 3: I wouldn't often ask, but if I had a problem
2:55
Speaker 3: with a Democrat, he could work it out. He was
2:57
Speaker 3: a great He was a great politics actually.
3:01
Speaker 4: And so Jim, we'll get to what happens with his
3:03
Speaker 4: seat a little bit later. In this first Martinez, you
3:06
Speaker 4: just want to time to talk about what we saw
3:07
Speaker 4: on what we're thinking, what we're observing, But one more
3:11
Speaker 4: clip before we get there. For most people, the absolute
3:15
Speaker 4: pinnacle of Lindsey Graham's time in more than thirty years
3:18
Speaker 4: on Capitol Hill was this moment during the second round
3:22
Speaker 4: of Brett Kavanaugh hearings, when Christine blazey Ford had come
3:25
Speaker 4: in and the Republicans, throughout her testimony had let the
3:28
Speaker 4: woman criminal investigator ask all the questions, and then the
3:31
Speaker 4: first two senators, Grassley and Hatch, let that happen again
3:35
Speaker 4: when Brett Kavanaugh came in to testify. Lindsey Graham was
3:38
Speaker 4: having none of that. He wanted the Democrats to get
3:40
Speaker 4: both barrels.
3:41
Speaker 5: If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come
3:44
Speaker 5: to us. What you want to do is destroy this
3:47
Speaker 5: guy's life, hold this seat open, and hope you win
3:51
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty. You've said that, not me. You've got
3:56
Speaker 5: nothing to apologize for. When you see so Oldamarron Kken,
4:01
Speaker 5: tell him that Lindsay said, Oh, because I voted for them,
4:05
Speaker 5: I would never do to them what you've done to
4:07
Speaker 5: this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I've
4:13
Speaker 5: been in politics. And if you really wanted to know
4:16
Speaker 5: the truth. You sure as hell wouldn't have done what
4:19
Speaker 5: you've done to this guy. Are you a gang rapist?
4:23
Speaker 3: No?
4:25
Speaker 5: I cannot imagine what you and your family have gone through.
4:29
Speaker 6: Boy, y'all want power.
4:30
Speaker 5: God, I hope you never get it. I hope the
4:32
Speaker 5: American people can see through this sham that you.
4:35
Speaker 1: Knew about it and you held it.
4:37
Speaker 5: You had no intention of protecting doctor fort none. She's
4:42
Speaker 5: as much of a victim as you are.
4:45
Speaker 3: God.
4:45
Speaker 5: I hate to say it because these have been my friends,
4:49
Speaker 5: but let me tell you, when it comes to this,
4:51
Speaker 5: you're looking for a fair process. You came to the
4:54
Speaker 5: wrong town at the wrong time.
4:57
Speaker 4: My friend, Jim Lindsay Graham is a little bit of
4:59
Speaker 4: a lightning even on the right. Some people didn't like
5:02
Speaker 4: his positions on immigration. He earned the nickname Lindsay Grahamnest.
5:05
Speaker 6: To other people.
5:06
Speaker 4: Obviously debated pretty fiercely about his thoughts on how much
5:10
Speaker 4: intervention we should do in the world. But first of all,
5:13
Speaker 4: I know we've laid out a lot here, But your
5:15
Speaker 4: thoughts on the shocking news and what you remember about
5:17
Speaker 4: his time in DC.
5:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, first of all, I think you set it
5:20
Speaker 1: up very well.
5:21
Speaker 3: That.
5:21
Speaker 7: We will talk a bit more about Mitch McConnell in
5:23
Speaker 7: this podcast later. But like, I think we're all bracing ourselves.
5:26
Speaker 7: When a you know, Occugenarian senator has been in the
5:29
Speaker 7: hospital for several weeks, haven't heard much from them, you
5:32
Speaker 7: kind of prepare yourself to hear the worst. No one
5:35
Speaker 7: is expecting this from Lindsay Graham at seventy one, Like,
5:38
Speaker 7: that's young by US Senate standards, that's young by you know,
5:41
Speaker 7: politician standards. And even I was thinking, you know, even
5:44
Speaker 7: deep into his senate career, he always had this boyish energy.
5:48
Speaker 7: He always had this you know, he seemed much younger
5:50
Speaker 7: than he was. I should probably should also should note
5:53
Speaker 7: that the as you said, a aortic rupture, was it aortic.
5:58
Speaker 6: Sexually official term.
6:01
Speaker 7: Look, you know, it's very understandable that when an outspoken
6:03
Speaker 7: critic of the Russian regime dies suddenly and unexpectedly. I
6:07
Speaker 7: don't begretge anyone having suspicions. It sounds like the initial
6:10
Speaker 7: autopsy results do not point in the direction of any
6:13
Speaker 7: sort of foul play. Thinking back to what you just
6:15
Speaker 7: watched about the Kavanaugh hearings, I think it's a very
6:17
Speaker 7: effective demonstration of the power of the effective use of
6:22
Speaker 7: anger in politics. And what made that so powerful is
6:25
Speaker 7: that that wasn't Lindsay Graham's default setting. It was usually
6:29
Speaker 7: jovial and amiable, and he meant it when he said
6:31
Speaker 7: that he had friends on the other side of the aisle,
6:32
Speaker 7: and he generally you know, Today's Morning jolt. I tried
6:36
Speaker 7: to collect a wide range of tributes to him, and
6:39
Speaker 7: not just from Republicans.
6:40
Speaker 3: You know.
6:41
Speaker 7: Amy Globuchark wrote something that was really surprisingly personal about
6:44
Speaker 7: how much she appreciated and enjoyed traveling with him and
6:46
Speaker 7: how he you know, he apparently described it periodically they
6:49
Speaker 7: go on these codels and he's just going to give
6:50
Speaker 7: this little glint smile in his eye of like, can
6:52
Speaker 7: you believe.
6:53
Speaker 1: We get to do this?
6:53
Speaker 7: You know this, this he enjoyed his job. He enjoyed
6:56
Speaker 7: representing the United States. He enjoyed the work of being
6:59
Speaker 7: a senator. My former colleague Jay Nordlinger and my current
7:02
Speaker 7: colleague Michael Brendan Dougherty do not see the world very
7:05
Speaker 7: similarly at all. Both wrote these genuine tributes to Lindsey
7:09
Speaker 7: Graham and the notion it was really interesting to see
7:12
Speaker 7: the number of people who disagreed with Lindsey Graham, including
7:15
Speaker 7: let's remember President Trump, who gave out his own his
7:18
Speaker 7: personal cell phone number during a rally. Graham does this
7:21
Speaker 7: very funny video of him smashing his cell phone. Everybody's
7:25
Speaker 7: calling it, but you saw in Trump's voice. Trump is
7:29
Speaker 7: not a guy who, as you said, usually sounds somber
7:33
Speaker 7: or grief stricken, but he really sounded as saddened as
7:37
Speaker 7: I think we've heard him in this and it was
7:39
Speaker 7: one of today's morning jolt.
7:41
Speaker 1: I go through. There were a lot of ways that
7:43
Speaker 1: Lindsey Graham was easy to mock.
7:45
Speaker 7: You know, he used to be seen as McCain's sidekick,
7:48
Speaker 7: and then he became seen as Trump's sidekick. But Trump
7:51
Speaker 7: kind of alluded to that in a conversation that when
7:53
Speaker 7: he needed an ambassador to the rest of the Senate
7:55
Speaker 7: caucus when there was a disagreement, Lindsey Graham found a
7:58
Speaker 7: way to make himself indispense. And for a guy who
8:02
Speaker 7: is supposedly this relic of a bygone era, particularly in
8:04
Speaker 7: his forms of his vision of US foreign policy and
8:07
Speaker 7: national security, won a whole lot of fights. We are
8:12
Speaker 7: bombing Iran right now, we have Maduro in custody. We have,
8:15
Speaker 7: you know, we have continued to sell arms to the Europeans,
8:19
Speaker 7: who they turn over to the Ukrainians. Like Lindsey, Graham
8:21
Speaker 7: won a wht of fights, not just you know, in
8:23
Speaker 7: foreign policy, but in judicial fights. He was a staunch
8:25
Speaker 7: pro lifer. He really won a lot more fights than
8:28
Speaker 7: he lost. And for this guy who was supposedly, ah,
8:32
Speaker 7: you know, he's a yes man, and boy, he.
8:34
Speaker 1: Sure got a lot of what he wanted done, didn't he.
8:36
Speaker 7: And it's just kind of this recognition that I think
8:39
Speaker 7: the conventional wisdom in Washington.
8:42
Speaker 1: It always praises.
8:44
Speaker 7: The show horses more than the workhorses. It does not
8:46
Speaker 7: reward the behind the scenes relationship building that often is
8:50
Speaker 7: key to getting cajoling someone to support something they don't
8:53
Speaker 7: want to support. He loved being a senator. He was
8:57
Speaker 7: good at it. He understood the job in a way
8:59
Speaker 7: that I think a lot of but the senators did not.
9:01
Speaker 7: And he's not a man who's going to be easily replaced.
9:04
Speaker 7: We'll talk a bit about who's you know, someone's going
9:05
Speaker 7: to represent the south state of South Carolina, and I'll
9:08
Speaker 7: just add one last point of like, you know, as
9:10
Speaker 7: listeners know, my parents live in South Carolina. We go
9:12
Speaker 7: down to visit probably twice a year, almost every year,
9:14
Speaker 7: and I often would be down around primary season, and
9:18
Speaker 7: it was very easy to find first Tea party types,
9:22
Speaker 7: then MAGA types or like, ah, Lindsay Graham is a squish,
9:25
Speaker 7: he's a sellout.
9:26
Speaker 1: He's not, you know.
9:27
Speaker 7: And first of all, most years like four or five
9:30
Speaker 7: ran against him, which already made it tougher, you know,
9:32
Speaker 7: when you're splitting the anti gram vote. But the anti
9:35
Speaker 7: Graham vote in a good year would be like forty
9:38
Speaker 7: percent of a Republican primary. And then generally there was
9:41
Speaker 7: always a majority of Republicans like, nope, nope, Lindsay's doing
9:44
Speaker 7: a good job. Let's keep him right where he is.
9:46
Speaker 7: And then of course at South Carolina he would cruise
9:47
Speaker 7: to victory in the general election. So for a guy
9:50
Speaker 7: who was often criticized and mocked and all that kind
9:53
Speaker 7: of stuff, he sure turned out to be pretty darn
9:56
Speaker 7: effective at his job. And I think he's going to
9:57
Speaker 7: be deeply missed, not just by his const by the President,
10:00
Speaker 7: by like a whole bunch of people across the US
10:02
Speaker 7: blow of the spectrum.
10:03
Speaker 4: Yeah, you mentioned two things that I think are worth
10:05
Speaker 4: emphasizing number one his pro life stands. He obviously got
10:08
Speaker 4: most of his attention for his thoughts on foreign policy,
10:12
Speaker 4: but he was the lead sponsor in the Senate of
10:14
Speaker 4: the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, basically protecting or trying
10:17
Speaker 4: to protect unborn life at twenty weeks and older, as
10:21
Speaker 4: the pro life movement try to get incrementally younger and
10:24
Speaker 4: younger into the pregnancy period. And then also, you know,
10:27
Speaker 4: even if people don't love your votes on everything, you
10:29
Speaker 4: know what makes up for that constituent service. And I
10:32
Speaker 4: think given his boundless energy on policy, my guess is
10:36
Speaker 4: that he was pretty good at that too. And so
10:39
Speaker 4: what happens next, Well, it's kind of a two track thing.
10:41
Speaker 4: First of all, Governor Henry McMaster of South Carolina will
10:44
Speaker 4: appoint someone to fill out the rest of this term
10:46
Speaker 4: for Lindsey Graham. But Graham was also, of course renominated
10:50
Speaker 4: for a fifth term in the US Senate, and now
10:52
Speaker 4: they need a new nominee. There will be about a
10:55
Speaker 4: week's worth of people being able to get into the race,
10:59
Speaker 4: and then a special primer will be held August eleventh.
11:02
Speaker 4: If nobody gets to fifty percent, they'll be a runoff
11:05
Speaker 4: on August twenty fifth, and there will probably be a runoff, because, Jim,
11:10
Speaker 4: if you are roughly sixty years old or younger in
11:13
Speaker 4: South Carolina, you've had a grand total of five senators
11:16
Speaker 4: in your entire life, including both seats. You had strom
11:19
Speaker 4: Thurman from the fifties up to Lindsay Graham, so that's two.
11:23
Speaker 4: Then you had Fritz Haulings from the mid sixties up
11:25
Speaker 4: to Jim Demnt who resigned, and then NICKI Haley appointed
11:28
Speaker 4: Tim Scott who's been there ever since. So these opportunities
11:31
Speaker 4: don't come around very often. I'm sure plenty of Democrats
11:34
Speaker 4: will get in. The question, though, with so many other
11:37
Speaker 4: Republicans already running for their offices, is who will likely
11:40
Speaker 4: get in. One person who wants in but definitely shouldn't
11:43
Speaker 4: get in is Nancy Mace, who decided to pull a
11:46
Speaker 4: Godfather pun yesterday by saying, oh, just as I'm getting out,
11:51
Speaker 4: they pull me back in and everybody is thankfully dumping
11:54
Speaker 4: on her, and so hopefully she's nowhere near Henry McMaster
11:58
Speaker 4: shortlist or the vote shortlist.
12:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, my first question is who's they?
12:05
Speaker 1: Who are these other people?
12:07
Speaker 7: Nancy Mace, by the way, was one of those Republican
12:09
Speaker 7: challengers against Lindsey Graham a couple of cycles ago before
12:12
Speaker 7: she was elected to the US House, and the other
12:14
Speaker 7: thing that she just came in fifth and a five
12:16
Speaker 7: way primary for governor. There's no one clamoring to see
12:19
Speaker 7: Nancy Mace in another office for the appointment position. I
12:24
Speaker 7: did see Senator Tim Scott recommending Trey Goudy, the former
12:27
Speaker 7: congressman of turned Fox News host, certainly strikes me as
12:31
Speaker 7: a fine choice. We will see what McMaster does.
12:33
Speaker 1: Again.
12:34
Speaker 7: This is just until I believe January third is when
12:36
Speaker 7: the term runs out. Voters of South Carolina should have
12:39
Speaker 7: their say in who the Republican nominee ought to be.
12:42
Speaker 7: As you mentioned, there's probably a lot of long frustrated
12:45
Speaker 7: senatorial ambitions floating around in that state, so we'll see
12:49
Speaker 7: who they end up going with.
12:50
Speaker 1: But again, South Carolina being what it is.
12:53
Speaker 7: You know, it is a near certainty that whoever gets
12:56
Speaker 7: that nomination will win in November and they'll you'll continue
13:00
Speaker 7: to be represented by a Republican in that state.
13:03
Speaker 6: Yeah.
13:03
Speaker 4: My friend John Guzzee, noting that the last poll of
13:06
Speaker 4: Lindsey Graham against Andrews, the Democratic nominee, was only three points,
13:11
Speaker 4: and I'm like, yeah, we've seen that before. Yeah, Jamie
13:15
Speaker 4: Harrison was supposed to be the next Sennor from South
13:17
Speaker 4: Carolina too, and that didn't quite pan out.
13:19
Speaker 6: So we will see.
13:20
Speaker 4: So, by the way, Maine, you could have a law
13:23
Speaker 4: that actually provides for an unfortunate situation like this instead
13:26
Speaker 4: of scrambling to hold some sort of backroom deal later
13:29
Speaker 4: in the month to pick a new nominee when circumstances
13:32
Speaker 4: require that. But anyway, in South Carolina there is going
13:36
Speaker 4: to be a mad scramble.
13:37
Speaker 7: Great, I hadn't thought about that, but that is going
13:39
Speaker 7: to make that contrast with Maine even more glaring. The
13:42
Speaker 7: sense like, well, at South Carolina, these things happened, we
13:45
Speaker 7: appoint somebody, we have this process to pick a nominee
13:49
Speaker 7: really quickly, and the state of Maine it's like, nope,
13:51
Speaker 7: got left it up to the party.
13:53
Speaker 1: Good luck everybody, you.
13:54
Speaker 4: Know, Yeah exactly. I think the consensus that I'm seeing online.
13:57
Speaker 4: Who knows what the governor will think, but the appointee
14:00
Speaker 4: should probably not be a person who's running.
14:03
Speaker 6: I think that seems to be what people are thinking.
14:05
Speaker 4: So anyway, a lot to talk about there, I'm sure
14:08
Speaker 4: We'll be talking about it a lot more as time
14:10
Speaker 4: goes on. But just horrible, shocking news in DC over
14:14
Speaker 4: the weekend. But what appears to be better news about
14:17
Speaker 4: Mitch McConnell, which we'll get to in just a second.
14:19
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Speaker 4: No missed calls, no missed customers, All right, Jim. Just
15:49
Speaker 4: hours after the shocking news about Senator Graham, we finally
15:52
Speaker 4: got some news about Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell, the longtime
15:57
Speaker 4: Senate Republican leader, issue a statement with a photo of
16:01
Speaker 4: him in the hospital with his wife Elane Chow and
16:05
Speaker 4: a newspaper under his hand, which I think is meant
16:09
Speaker 4: to show that it was actually taken that death of life.
16:12
Speaker 1: He has a hostage tape or something.
16:14
Speaker 4: And then the explanation is a little bit odd. It
16:16
Speaker 4: says he never had a heart attack. He never had
16:18
Speaker 4: a stroke, he never had a concussion, but he did fall,
16:20
Speaker 4: he briefly lost consciousness, and then while in the hospital
16:23
Speaker 4: after they brought him there after losing consciousness, he developed
16:26
Speaker 4: a mild case of pneumonia. Still doesn't explain why we
16:29
Speaker 4: haven't gotten any explanation until now, and that means the
16:33
Speaker 4: conspiracy theorists are still running wild. Of course, one argument
16:36
Speaker 4: is that, well, for the most of that time, the
16:37
Speaker 4: Senate was out of session. This week it's coming back.
16:39
Speaker 4: So now McConnell's team is explaining what happened here. He's
16:43
Speaker 4: still not going to be back right away, but they
16:45
Speaker 4: say hopefully soon. So, Jim, is this sufficient or no?
16:51
Speaker 7: It's a step in the right direction, But I think
16:53
Speaker 7: I'd like to go a little bit further. This circumstance
16:55
Speaker 7: is complicated by a the experience with Joe Biden in
16:58
Speaker 7: the last year or two of his present and see
17:01
Speaker 7: Republican Congressman Tom Keane Junior of New Jersey, who basically
17:05
Speaker 7: disappeared for months from the house and with no explanation,
17:08
Speaker 7: then came back and said that he was being treated
17:10
Speaker 7: for depression. That is really a brutal situation. I think
17:14
Speaker 7: everyone sympathizes, But if your depression is so serious that
17:18
Speaker 7: you can't show up to work and you know, for
17:21
Speaker 7: months at a time, maybe the US House of Representatives is
17:24
Speaker 7: not the place for you. Maybe you need something that
17:26
Speaker 7: you can balance your mental health and work more easily.
17:30
Speaker 7: And then this circumstance with Lindsay Graham, in which you know,
17:33
Speaker 7: people are also genuinely wondering, like, Okay, you know, it's
17:36
Speaker 7: good to know that McConnell is still alive. It's we
17:38
Speaker 7: all kind of figured based on the EMT response to
17:42
Speaker 7: his house that this was some sort of, you know,
17:43
Speaker 7: fairly serious health issue. This still picture is better than
17:46
Speaker 7: nothing I got. You know, he's looking like he's in
17:48
Speaker 7: kind of rough shape. Video would have been better, but
17:50
Speaker 7: maybe he really is in rough shape and they don't
17:52
Speaker 7: want to show him Like I can understand that. Again,
17:55
Speaker 7: you have obligations to your constituents, and I think it's
17:58
Speaker 7: very fair for Senate Republicans to be wondering for Kentucky's constituents,
18:02
Speaker 7: if Kentucky voters wondering when will he be able to
18:05
Speaker 7: return to work and vote, because now all of a sudden,
18:08
Speaker 7: Republicans are down not one, but two Republican senators in
18:12
Speaker 7: a very tightly controlled chamber. I understand it's tough to
18:15
Speaker 7: get a diagnosis of how long it's going to be
18:18
Speaker 7: in the hospital, and people's conditions can take turns for
18:21
Speaker 7: the better, they can take turns for the worse, and
18:23
Speaker 7: all that stuff. But this has been now three weeks,
18:25
Speaker 7: four weeks. This is getting to be a pretty long absence.
18:28
Speaker 7: And I'm struck by the examples of this with Keene
18:31
Speaker 7: and with McConnell, and maybe I'm certain to a stent
18:34
Speaker 7: with Biden. This sense that the public will not be
18:37
Speaker 7: sympathetic and or the fact that you can like not
18:40
Speaker 7: show up to work for really long periods of time
18:43
Speaker 7: without explanation. This is a step in the right direction
18:45
Speaker 7: in terms of the explanation. I believe McConnell had fallen earlier.
18:49
Speaker 7: We also had the moments where we'd seen him kind
18:51
Speaker 7: of freeze on screen, which I'll be honest was kind
18:53
Speaker 7: of kind of frightening to see. So we want Senator
18:57
Speaker 7: McConnell to be well. I also know the Democratic of
19:00
Speaker 7: Kentucky has, you know, sent some letters publicly sent some
19:04
Speaker 7: letters that are meant to pressure McConnell, and by the way,
19:07
Speaker 7: let me just just a quick piece of advice. Begin
19:10
Speaker 7: with I hope you're doing well, Begin.
19:12
Speaker 1: With how are you doing?
19:15
Speaker 7: Try to pretend you're a human being who cares about
19:18
Speaker 7: another human being, and then get into happen to notice
19:21
Speaker 7: you haven't been at work. And we really ideally would
19:24
Speaker 7: have two senators who can vote on legislation that's important
19:28
Speaker 7: to Kentucky. When do you think you'll be able to
19:30
Speaker 7: come back, and if not, should we begin the process
19:34
Speaker 7: of appointing a replacement. By the way, in Kentucky, my
19:37
Speaker 7: understanding is the law is that he'd have to point
19:39
Speaker 7: a Republican. It's not like he can do that. However,
19:41
Speaker 7: by declaring the vacancy, he could like cause a headache
19:44
Speaker 7: for Republicans in dragging things out. So again, the more
19:48
Speaker 7: information you put out to the public, the less you
19:51
Speaker 7: have to worry about these sorts of headaches. And it's
19:52
Speaker 7: been a frustrating bit of opaqueness about McConnell and this
19:57
Speaker 7: health incident over the last couple.
19:58
Speaker 4: Of weeks in a couple of ways. First of all,
20:01
Speaker 4: if Mitch is sentient and able to communicate, like Scott
20:04
Speaker 4: Jennings and others were saying last week, then people like
20:06
Speaker 4: Laura Lumer and Rick Wilson and all these other people
20:09
Speaker 4: who have it done good authority from sources inside the
20:12
Speaker 4: hospital and so forth, that he's brain dead or a
20:14
Speaker 4: vegetable or on life support, however you want.
20:17
Speaker 6: To put it.
20:17
Speaker 4: Those people's credibility, not that it was all that great
20:20
Speaker 4: in the first place, is certainly going to take another hit.
20:23
Speaker 4: I'm a little bit confused now on Kentucky because I
20:25
Speaker 4: thought they had switched that law where the governor could
20:28
Speaker 4: not appoint and that's why there needs to be a
20:30
Speaker 4: special election, and that's why August third was the.
20:33
Speaker 7: You're correct, I'm misrememb because the originally it said had
20:35
Speaker 7: to be the same party. Then they're like, you know,
20:37
Speaker 7: we didn't even know if we trust him to do that.
20:39
Speaker 7: Let's setch it even further. You got to have a
20:41
Speaker 7: special election exactly.
20:42
Speaker 4: But if it's after August third, where he can't serve,
20:45
Speaker 4: then they just wait for the general election. And I
20:47
Speaker 4: think probably Andy Barr, but whoever wins that race would
20:50
Speaker 4: immediately take over. Wouldn't wait until January third. But butsher
20:53
Speaker 4: is fighting this. He says, the new law about a
20:55
Speaker 4: special election rather than governor being able to appoint the
20:59
Speaker 4: interim success. He's going to fight that in court, So
21:02
Speaker 4: by the time that's all resolved, who knows what would
21:04
Speaker 4: be left anyway, But hopefully Mitch is fine and we
21:06
Speaker 4: can at least get to election day when Andy bar
21:10
Speaker 4: might be able to take over for him. But no
21:12
Speaker 4: shortage of drama in either of these seats going forward.
21:16
Speaker 4: All right, well, let's talk about something way better than that.
21:18
Speaker 4: And as long as we're talking about health today, let's
21:20
Speaker 4: make sure we can stay as healthy as possible, as
21:23
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21:27
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22:53
Speaker 4: a little bit, but staying with a Member of Congress here,
22:56
Speaker 4: and that's California Congressman Rocata fresh Off utterly human himself
23:00
Speaker 4: by standing by Grand Platiner when there were ample opportunities
23:03
Speaker 4: to cut the bait, but he stayed with them all
23:05
Speaker 4: the way until everybody bailed on Platiner after the Politico story.
23:09
Speaker 4: But Racan's not done humiliating himself. He decided it was
23:12
Speaker 4: time to pull a stunt over in the West Bank.
23:14
Speaker 4: So that's what he did over the weekend, basically making
23:17
Speaker 4: sure that he had at least an encounter.
23:19
Speaker 6: With the IDF.
23:21
Speaker 4: Here's his explanation of what happened is they tried to
23:24
Speaker 4: get to a spot there in the West Bank.
23:27
Speaker 2: And certainly that probably the first American politician has been
23:29
Speaker 2: detained by the IDF and Israeli settlers. I mean, we
23:35
Speaker 2: were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed. They
23:41
Speaker 2: had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and
23:44
Speaker 2: we were just looking at it. And these hoodlums come
23:47
Speaker 2: in with machine guns and M four, an American made
23:50
Speaker 2: machine gun, and they detain us. They block off the
23:53
Speaker 2: road and then they called the IDF. And the IDF
23:56
Speaker 2: is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.
23:59
Speaker 2: Being in the West Bank and in Israel is the
24:03
Speaker 2: first time that I have really been acutely aware of
24:07
Speaker 2: being brown. I feel like people have seen me first
24:11
Speaker 2: as brown, second as an American congressman, and third as
24:16
Speaker 2: an American citizen. I saw the arrogance in the eyes
24:19
Speaker 2: of those settlers, twenty one and twenty two year olds
24:22
Speaker 2: with guns, laughing that they had detained us, The arrogance
24:27
Speaker 2: of those young IDF soldiers that my tax dollars are funding,
24:31
Speaker 2: having no respect for the fact that they were detaining Americans,
24:35
Speaker 2: no respect that there was an American congressperson in that bus,
24:40
Speaker 2: and laughing when our translator told them that there are
24:44
Speaker 2: Americans there in the American embassy. Is concerned?
24:46
Speaker 6: Light up, Francis okay?
24:49
Speaker 4: Playing the race card, of course, Jim, as other people
24:51
Speaker 4: have explained, who know this way better than me. There
24:53
Speaker 4: are certain places because Israelis don't like terrorist attacks in
24:57
Speaker 4: their country. If you want to go to certain places
24:59
Speaker 4: in the West Bank, there's going to be checkpoints. The
25:02
Speaker 4: IDEF didn't come in and like handcuff them and put
25:05
Speaker 4: them in a lock up or anything. They simply came
25:08
Speaker 4: up to the bus and you know, had a discussion
25:10
Speaker 4: and everything was fine. A little bit of a drama
25:13
Speaker 4: queen act here by Rocana, which is exactly what he wanted.
25:17
Speaker 7: Well, first of all, even Greteth Thunberg is like, oh,
25:19
Speaker 7: come on. The detail that really got me was when
25:23
Speaker 7: Rocanna said that the settlers yelled this is Maga country
25:26
Speaker 7: and had you know, detained Juicy simolet next to him,
25:30
Speaker 7: a frenchman, I believe. So the other detail that I
25:34
Speaker 7: like in this where he says this is the first
25:35
Speaker 7: time in his life he felt so aware of being brown.
25:38
Speaker 7: I will interpret that to me that at no point
25:39
Speaker 7: in this life in the United States of America did
25:41
Speaker 7: you feel like a minority or oppress or anything like that.
25:43
Speaker 7: So good for you, Rocanna, I'm glad that you appreciate
25:45
Speaker 7: that you're willing to say that like this is the
25:47
Speaker 7: first time in your life it's happened. So finally, if
25:51
Speaker 7: you're smiling when you use the word detained, I'm going
25:55
Speaker 7: to go out and lem and say it was not
25:56
Speaker 7: that hard experience for you. It was really not that bad,
25:59
Speaker 7: and you are at absolutely delighted that now you've got
26:01
Speaker 7: your story about how terrible the IDF is, about how
26:05
Speaker 7: terrible the Israeli settlers are. It couldn't possibly be that
26:08
Speaker 7: you walked into a place where it says do not enter,
26:11
Speaker 7: you know.
26:11
Speaker 1: Or something like that.
26:12
Speaker 7: I was just taking an innocent walk through Fort Knox,
26:15
Speaker 7: and then these thugs from the government tried to express
26:18
Speaker 7: me whenever somebody goes abroad and their interaction with a
26:22
Speaker 7: government that they have denounced six ways to Sunday, seven
26:25
Speaker 7: days of the week, twice on Sundays, they have exactly
26:28
Speaker 7: the kind of encounter that they would describe if they,
26:30
Speaker 7: you know, in the perfect your spidey sense should start
26:33
Speaker 7: to tingle that all seems a little too perfect, a
26:35
Speaker 7: little too contrived. Oh yes, this happens to come after.
26:38
Speaker 7: Rocana was not just like your garden variety Democratic congressman
26:42
Speaker 7: supporting Graham Platner. He was arguably the guy who was
26:44
Speaker 7: most enthusiastic after the initial accusations about physical abuse. In
26:48
Speaker 7: the New York Times article from Lindsay Fifeld, Rocanna went
26:51
Speaker 7: out to do a fundraiser for him. Right, nobody staked
26:55
Speaker 7: more on Graham Plattner than Rocana, and he desperately needs
26:59
Speaker 7: people to think differently. Finally, he said it's probably one
27:02
Speaker 7: of his ex posts or something like that. He said, look,
27:04
Speaker 7: warning to Israel, it's not a good idea to detain
27:06
Speaker 7: a potential US presidential candidate.
27:09
Speaker 1: Greg.
27:10
Speaker 7: If you're funny, you don't have to tell people that
27:13
Speaker 7: you're funny. If you're charming, you don't have to tell
27:15
Speaker 7: people that you're charming. If you're a serious potential US
27:18
Speaker 7: presidential candidate, you don't have to tell people that you're
27:21
Speaker 7: a In fact, if you have to tell people, you're
27:23
Speaker 7: not that serious the US presidential candidate the next cycle.
27:26
Speaker 4: He's only done himself more damage, probably even among Democrats.
27:29
Speaker 4: I think he looks ridiculous at this point, but now
27:33
Speaker 4: he's probably sad because he's his story got knocked off
27:36
Speaker 4: the front page. But nonetheless, Rocanna, maybe you and Tucker
27:40
Speaker 4: can swap stories about, you know, the Tel Aviv.
27:43
Speaker 1: Airport, the He'll do that interview at some point.
27:46
Speaker 6: You know, it's exactly all right.
27:49
Speaker 4: We've talked a lot about the health of politicians in
27:51
Speaker 4: this episode. Actually got a bit of good.
27:54
Speaker 6: News in our chaser. Stay with us, all right, Jim.
28:00
Speaker 4: Obviously tragic news about Senator Graham, cautiously optimistic news about
28:04
Speaker 4: Senator McConnell here. But also over the weekend, there was
28:08
Speaker 4: a podcast clip that was circulating. It's since now been
28:11
Speaker 4: taken down because they feared it was taken out of context.
28:14
Speaker 4: But Ben Sass, who just before Christmas basically said I've
28:17
Speaker 4: got metastatic pancreatic cancer and I'm going to die. The
28:20
Speaker 4: prognosis was three to four months, which were well passed.
28:24
Speaker 4: Now it's basically six and a half months and he's
28:27
Speaker 4: still doing podcast interviews, so that's good news.
28:30
Speaker 6: But on this.
28:30
Speaker 4: Podcast he said that eighty percent of his tumors have
28:33
Speaker 4: shrunk and ninety nine percent of his blood is cancer free.
28:37
Speaker 4: Now they took down the clip because they said the
28:40
Speaker 4: full context of the conversation shows that it's still terminal.
28:44
Speaker 4: The prognosis ultimately for Ben's SaaS sooner rather than later,
28:47
Speaker 4: probably is not that great. But I'd say two things here, Jim.
28:51
Speaker 4: First of all, great that this experimental drug is working.
28:54
Speaker 4: And I just hope things like this are available for
28:57
Speaker 4: every American who wants to have a chance at extending
28:59
Speaker 4: their life.
29:00
Speaker 1: Yeah.
29:01
Speaker 7: So back in December, the Post editors said, hey, you
29:04
Speaker 7: want to write a column about Ben Sas. It'd be
29:07
Speaker 7: nice to talk about how great he is and all
29:10
Speaker 7: the great things he's done while he's still around to
29:12
Speaker 7: read it and enjoy it, as opposed to, you know,
29:15
Speaker 7: obituaries and tributes, you know, like we're doing for Lindsey
29:18
Speaker 7: Graham that you know that the idea that like you
29:20
Speaker 7: only pay tribute to someone when they're gone. So I
29:23
Speaker 7: wrote that, and here we are in July, and Ben
29:25
Speaker 7: Sas is still around, still doing interviews, still facing about
29:29
Speaker 7: the darkest scenario, not just with bravery, but also like
29:32
Speaker 7: with genuine wisdom and genuine sense of how you know,
29:37
Speaker 7: we all know our time on this earth is limited,
29:39
Speaker 7: and he seems to be knowing how to make the
29:41
Speaker 7: very most out of every remaining hour minute. You know,
29:45
Speaker 7: second that he has left, and this secondly, there's someone
29:48
Speaker 7: had reached out early on after writing that column and said,
29:50
Speaker 7: do you know how to get in touch with Ben SaaS?
29:51
Speaker 7: I know about this experimental treatment that works, wonders. I
29:54
Speaker 7: don't know if this is the treatment that he's getting.
29:56
Speaker 7: I forwarded the person I had spoken to about Sas,
29:59
Speaker 7: And you know, it is kind of nice to know
30:01
Speaker 7: for everyone we know who's fighting cancer out there, they
30:04
Speaker 7: are making breakthroughs. There are experimental treatments, there are new
30:07
Speaker 7: options that were not there just a few years ago.
30:09
Speaker 7: And you know, for all of us who've had people
30:12
Speaker 7: in our lives that we've lost what we would have
30:14
Speaker 7: given for another six months, what we would have given
30:16
Speaker 7: for another year, what we would have given for just
30:18
Speaker 7: a little more time with them to appreciate them and
30:20
Speaker 7: to enjoy them. So again, this has been a very
30:22
Speaker 7: health heavy episode. We don't usually Folcus saw. You know,
30:26
Speaker 7: this is not the Doctor Oz program. In a time
30:29
Speaker 7: when it's been kind of tough, it's really great to
30:30
Speaker 7: hear that SaaS is still around, looking pretty good for
30:33
Speaker 7: a guy who was supposed to be at death's door.
30:35
Speaker 7: So not out of the woods yet still a terminal diagnosis.
30:38
Speaker 7: But it's just nice to have him around for as
30:41
Speaker 7: long as we have.
30:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, two notes on this. His calm and his peace
30:44
Speaker 4: in the midst of this is just amazing, and of
30:47
Speaker 4: course it's all rooted in his Christian faith. One of
30:49
Speaker 4: the favorite funny stories he had in one of these podcasts,
30:51
Speaker 4: because he's done a lot of interviews on this, is basically,
30:54
Speaker 4: once he got past his prognosis of whatever it was,
30:57
Speaker 4: three or four months, his wife said, all right, were
31:01
Speaker 4: pasted three or four months. You got to start doing
31:02
Speaker 4: chores again. So keeping it real in the SaaS.
31:06
Speaker 1: Huh, I'm feeling worse. I'm feeling worse.
31:08
Speaker 4: Yeah, anyway, let's hope we have a lot more good
31:12
Speaker 4: news tomorrow. But glad to hear that little nugget of
31:15
Speaker 4: positivity from the saasas.
31:17
Speaker 6: Jim, I'll talk to tomorrow.
31:18
Speaker 4: See you tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty, National Review. I'm Greg
31:21
Speaker 4: Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so much for being with
31:24
Speaker 4: us today. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast
31:26
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