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Normally Podcast: COVID-19 Oversight Report Reactions · Normally

0:03
Speaker 1: Hey, gay on normally the show with normalish takes for
0:07
Speaker 1: when the news gets weird. I am Mary Catherine Ham and.
0:10
Speaker 2: I'm Carol Markowitz. H'm Mary Catherine. How are you?
0:13
Speaker 1: I am doing all right? I mean it's just like
0:15
Speaker 1: the Race to Christmas. So this morning I have the
0:19
Speaker 1: training session for the toddlers to not touch the tree.
0:21
Speaker 1: How's that gonna go? Not well? Not well is the
0:25
Speaker 1: answer training session. I mean last year we had like
0:27
Speaker 1: a cage around it. It was like in an octagon.
0:30
Speaker 1: There was a baby playpen and they couldn't climb it.
0:32
Speaker 1: But this year we're just out of luck.
0:34
Speaker 2: So you're like, this is what touching the tree is?
0:36
Speaker 2: This is what not touching the tree?
0:38
Speaker 1: I mean it's just a small tree. So if it falls,
0:40
Speaker 1: it falls. Yeah. If he dies, he dies. As they
0:45
Speaker 1: rocky for the best one, obviously, how are you guy?
0:49
Speaker 2: I was rooting for the American just so everyone there.
0:51
Speaker 1: Okay, Yes, it's good that you say that. You know
0:53
Speaker 1: your commenters your reply guys might have some issues. It's Carol,
0:57
Speaker 1: how's it going for you? Good?
0:59
Speaker 2: I'm in la I do not recommend. I love this
1:02
Speaker 2: crazy place in a lot of ways. The food here
1:05
Speaker 2: is unbelievable. It's so beautiful in a lot of different places,
1:08
Speaker 2: but it's just an inconvenient place to be. And I
1:11
Speaker 2: guess I never knew that until I live somewhere convenient,
1:14
Speaker 2: like after living in Florida, I just expecting to function.
1:18
Speaker 2: They don't function here.
1:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like there's a you were hardened by
1:21
Speaker 1: New York. You know, you can endure a lot of
1:24
Speaker 1: inconvenience as a New York are place plus cold. So
1:27
Speaker 1: when you go to La and it's warm and inconvenience,
1:29
Speaker 1: it's better. But now you have warm and convenient in Florida.
1:33
Speaker 2: Really nailed it there, That's exactly what it is. I'm
1:35
Speaker 2: also freezing. It's like fifty five degrees here. It's so cold,
1:39
Speaker 2: like it did not bring appropriate clothing.
1:41
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. We've turned her southern.
1:44
Speaker 2: You really have. And I'm glad to be here. I
1:47
Speaker 2: have adopted my southernist, you know, really closely.
1:50
Speaker 1: I understand. Shall we talk about the news, all right? Well,
1:55
Speaker 1: the Southern State's got a lot of things right during COVID,
1:58
Speaker 1: and now we know a little bit more about just
2:01
Speaker 1: how right they got them. The House released its oversight
2:05
Speaker 1: report on the COVID nineteen pandemic and the regulatory responses
2:09
Speaker 1: to it. It is a five hundred plus page report.
2:12
Speaker 1: I will admit I have not read the whole thing,
2:14
Speaker 1: but we will give you a couple of highlights. I
2:17
Speaker 1: know Carol has some too, cribbing from someone on Twitter
2:20
Speaker 1: at the moment, because it's right in front of my face.
2:23
Speaker 1: Over two hundred billion in relief funds lost to fraud
2:27
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen likely originated from a lab related incident in
2:30
Speaker 1: Wuhan's This is the third government report I think that
2:33
Speaker 1: has concluded that prolonged lockdowns and arbitrary mandates caused severe harm,
2:38
Speaker 1: economic devastation, mental health crises, and historic learning loss while
2:42
Speaker 1: lacking robust scientific support. There are many more. What are
2:46
Speaker 1: some of your low lights, Carol?
2:49
Speaker 2: Because I'm so bitter about what went down in New York,
2:52
Speaker 2: specifically the fact that Cuomo was called out for, you know,
2:57
Speaker 2: basically covering up the number of nursing home deaths to
3:00
Speaker 2: New York. It was something that I was saying all along,
3:03
Speaker 2: A lot of people were saying at the time, and
3:05
Speaker 2: then they had to kind of admit it, but they
3:07
Speaker 2: never really admitted it. If you go back and you know,
3:10
Speaker 2: I remember it very well. A Cuomo aid apologized only
3:14
Speaker 2: to Democrats because it was hurting their electoral chance and said, yes,
3:18
Speaker 2: we covered up some of these deaths, but we're sorry
3:21
Speaker 2: to you guys that this is so hard for you politically,
3:24
Speaker 2: and they never apologize to the people. Jenstein continues to
3:27
Speaker 2: fight a good fight on this. The joke, of course,
3:29
Speaker 2: is that one of Pomo's top aides, who the sky
3:32
Speaker 2: rich As, accused Ron DeSantis of covering up death rays,
3:38
Speaker 2: and of course you know they were the ones guilty
3:41
Speaker 2: of it themselves. So I like that that's in writing.
3:44
Speaker 2: You know. The thing is this is called the Coronavirus
3:47
Speaker 2: Pandemic Committee on Oversight and Accountability. I'd love to see
3:51
Speaker 2: some accountability. I don't know how we get there. Like
3:54
Speaker 2: the fact, for example, that that much money was stolen.
3:57
Speaker 2: How do we fight that? How do we get account
4:00
Speaker 2: ability for that? I don't know if it's possible anymore.
4:02
Speaker 2: It just it's a crazy amount. What was the number again, to.
4:05
Speaker 1: Two hundred billion? And notably Jim Garritty reported this the
4:10
Speaker 1: biggest sole instance or the state that led the pack
4:14
Speaker 1: was Minnesota, led by none other than Governor Tim Walls. Yeah,
4:18
Speaker 1: which you would think would be relevant on the campaign trail,
4:21
Speaker 1: but we didn't hear it, didn't come up much about it. Yeah,
4:24
Speaker 1: I am pleased that we are apparently in an era
4:27
Speaker 1: where people do at least care what was done to them.
4:32
Speaker 1: I think you and I both worried that no one
4:35
Speaker 1: We both were concerned that people didn't care enough at
4:37
Speaker 1: the time, right, And then afterwards I thought, is there
4:40
Speaker 1: going to be any backlash for this or are people
4:43
Speaker 1: just done thinking about it?
4:45
Speaker 2: Yeah?
4:45
Speaker 1: And I'm pleased that there is a new era where
4:48
Speaker 1: we're considering that. But accountability takes follow through. I mean,
4:52
Speaker 1: Janisteine has spent a part time job for and sometimes
4:56
Speaker 1: a full time job on top of her full time
4:58
Speaker 1: job for years fighting for people like her in laws
5:02
Speaker 1: who passed away in these situations caused by Cuomo.
5:08
Speaker 3: Right.
5:08
Speaker 1: And I just don't know what our attention span is
5:11
Speaker 1: for it, but I'm glad that there's a Republican incoming
5:14
Speaker 1: administration that might be interested.
5:15
Speaker 2: In it exactly, and I hope that they maintained that interest. Cuomo,
5:20
Speaker 2: of course, is being whispered that he's going to be
5:22
Speaker 2: running for mayor of New York City. A lot of
5:24
Speaker 2: people are like look, it's New York. He's going to
5:26
Speaker 2: be the most moderate of the field. I'm like, I know,
5:29
Speaker 2: but he killed a bunch of old people for no reason.
5:31
Speaker 2: So I don't care how moderate he is, you know,
5:34
Speaker 2: I just I don't know. I find it really hard
5:37
Speaker 2: to get over what he did. Because the thing is,
5:40
Speaker 2: there's a lot of times where we could say we
5:41
Speaker 2: didn't know. They didn't know a lot of this. Oh,
5:44
Speaker 2: we had no idea. We thought double masking would work,
5:46
Speaker 2: Like I don't know, a lot of these things that
5:48
Speaker 2: we kind of knew were silly at the time, but
5:50
Speaker 2: it took people a little while to get there. Fine, Okay,
5:53
Speaker 2: older people being exposed to COVID was something we knew
5:57
Speaker 2: March twenty twenty. We knew we had to TechEd our elderly.
6:01
Speaker 2: So how did they think putting COVID positive patients back
6:04
Speaker 2: into nursing homes was going to be?
6:06
Speaker 1: Okay?
6:07
Speaker 3: Yeah?
6:08
Speaker 1: So yeah, when they had other options, By the way,
6:10
Speaker 1: the Giant Javits Center, which went basically unused, if I
6:14
Speaker 1: recall correctly.
6:15
Speaker 2: Yep, the ship went unused. The well that one too, yeah,
6:19
Speaker 2: completely unused.
6:20
Speaker 1: Yeah. I reject Cuomo if only because of that stupid
6:25
Speaker 1: poster he created theself a poster, the New York Tough
6:30
Speaker 1: poster that he drew himself. And honestly, if you guys
6:33
Speaker 1: google it. Just googled the New York Tough Clomo poster.
6:36
Speaker 1: It's on eBay for three hundred dollars right now.
6:39
Speaker 2: Nancy Ramlman has one on her wall.
6:41
Speaker 1: I know, discuss. It's a real relic of that time,
6:45
Speaker 1: and it's a it's a testament to how much he
6:47
Speaker 1: loves himself so much, the idea that he was this
6:52
Speaker 1: great leader, which I think cuts sort of the real
6:55
Speaker 1: problem with some of our political incentives, which is if
6:58
Speaker 1: you're a Democrat and you get and sort of speak
7:00
Speaker 1: fluently in a time of crisis, everyone's like, that guy's
7:04
Speaker 1: making all the right decisions. Yeah, meanwhile, the Santis is
7:06
Speaker 1: in Florida actually, or Kemp is in Georgia actually making
7:09
Speaker 1: the right decisions. And it's like, no, you're not a superstar.
7:12
Speaker 1: This guy who's putting people old people in looking him.
7:15
Speaker 2: Telling us the date, you know, it was like he
7:18
Speaker 2: takes it to television and he tells you what day
7:20
Speaker 2: it is.
7:21
Speaker 1: He's unstoppable, impressive. Give him a million dollar book deal,
7:25
Speaker 1: several million yeah, anyway, No, I'm pleased that we have
7:28
Speaker 1: this all in writing. There's also the WHO and CDC,
7:31
Speaker 1: compromised by political interference, offered inconsistent, unscientific guidance that fueled
7:36
Speaker 1: public distrust. I mean, there's just thing after thing after thing,
7:40
Speaker 1: and you still see. By the way, one of the
7:42
Speaker 1: things I like about Team Reality and the COVID skeptics
7:45
Speaker 1: coming into the Trump administration is that the Team Insanity
7:49
Speaker 1: people are revealing themselves once again. And you get these
7:54
Speaker 1: people who are still speaking up for like school closures prolonged.
7:58
Speaker 1: They're like, no, the learning loss, it's not a big deal.
8:01
Speaker 1: Everything's fine.
8:02
Speaker 2: It's remarkable, it really is, And there are people still
8:06
Speaker 2: defending that whole time. Defense I get most often is
8:09
Speaker 2: we didn't know. I'm like, here's something I wrote in
8:12
Speaker 2: twenty twenty. Here's something I wrote in twenty twenty one.
8:15
Speaker 2: We knew, we knew, we knew all this stuff.
8:17
Speaker 1: I just think, like from the very beginning, as you noted,
8:20
Speaker 1: we knew young people are safer than old people, and
8:23
Speaker 1: we knew outside safer than inside. Those were the things
8:27
Speaker 1: that were quite obvious from almost day one. And yet
8:31
Speaker 1: I was lifting my kids over locked playground, equipp fences,
8:36
Speaker 1: and we were throwing old people into nursing homes together, right, it.
8:41
Speaker 2: Just made no sense. Yeah, so again I'd love to
8:44
Speaker 2: see accountability. I don't know. I don't know what they
8:47
Speaker 2: could do, right, I don't know what kind of accountability
8:50
Speaker 2: we can expect at this point. It has been a
8:52
Speaker 2: long time. I like you, am pleased that people still
8:56
Speaker 2: do seem interested in it. We get a lot of
8:58
Speaker 2: comments both on tw and in our email saying that
9:02
Speaker 2: they love people love that we continue to talk about
9:04
Speaker 2: what happened because they feel like people just stopped and
9:07
Speaker 2: no one cares and so much dad was done and
9:09
Speaker 2: no one took any responsibility for it. So they do
9:12
Speaker 2: like us continue to tick on these femal We'll be
9:14
Speaker 2: right back on normally.
9:19
Speaker 1: I want to toss to you some credit for a
9:22
Speaker 1: cabinet pick. Yeah, that was already appointment that that you
9:25
Speaker 1: had a covid era complaint about and what happened with him.
9:28
Speaker 2: Well, so it's interesting. But last episode we talked about
9:32
Speaker 2: the dat point Cronister. He's a sheriff in Florida, and
9:36
Speaker 2: I said that, you know, I'm a big fan of
9:38
Speaker 2: my Governor Ron DeSantis, but DeSantis defended Cronister and said
9:41
Speaker 2: he'd be great and all this while Chad Cronister declined
9:45
Speaker 2: the appointment. I guess the pressure got too much. A
9:47
Speaker 2: lot of people complained about him, and he's no longer
9:51
Speaker 2: going to be head of the DEA. So look, do
9:53
Speaker 2: I think that he needs to be shunned from all
9:56
Speaker 2: office forever or all all positions. No, but I would
9:59
Speaker 2: love to hear some contrition. I'd love to hear some apologies,
10:02
Speaker 2: and that's really what where we are. I don't think
10:04
Speaker 2: he ever apologized for arresting a pastor or opening the
10:08
Speaker 2: you know, the jails to release people because of COVID.
10:11
Speaker 2: I just all this kind of stuff that I think
10:13
Speaker 2: was really poorly done. And you could say we didn't
10:17
Speaker 2: know or I was wrong, But I want to hear
10:19
Speaker 2: that I was wrong and I'm sorry, and we haven't
10:21
Speaker 2: really heard that.
10:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think the first part of accountability is
10:25
Speaker 1: that you don't give people increased power who used their
10:30
Speaker 1: power for bad things in this time unless you are
10:34
Speaker 1: very clear on the idea that they are sorry for
10:36
Speaker 1: what happened during that admittedly somewhat confusing time. Right who
10:41
Speaker 1: I mean the pastor.
10:42
Speaker 2: Things if they make it sound.
10:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also the pastor thing is like First Amendment
10:47
Speaker 1: is very clear. It's number one, number one, like it's
10:49
Speaker 1: in there.
10:50
Speaker 2: I think the Founders really meant it.
10:51
Speaker 1: I think they did. My goodness, Should we move on
10:54
Speaker 1: to some other picks.
10:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as we are recording this on Wednesday, the
11:00
Speaker 2: Pete Hegseth domination is in trouble. You know, I have
11:05
Speaker 2: been very outstoken in defending Hegseth. I think that he
11:08
Speaker 2: would be amazing in the role, you know. I think
11:11
Speaker 2: I don't know if I mentioned this on the show
11:12
Speaker 2: or just on my Twitter, but a lot of people
11:14
Speaker 2: just assume I'm defending him because we're friends. We're not friends.
11:17
Speaker 2: I like him, he likes me. I think we follow
11:19
Speaker 2: each other on the on the apps, as they're saying
11:21
Speaker 2: we've hung out once, like we're not friends, Like we're friendly.
11:25
Speaker 2: So I'm not doing this because I am friends with
11:27
Speaker 2: the guy. I think he is a really good pick
11:29
Speaker 2: for what we need, and what we need is to
11:31
Speaker 2: get the numbers up in our military, which is really fading.
11:35
Speaker 2: Our just enlistment rates are solo and they keep missing targets,
11:38
Speaker 2: and I think he just is the guy to get
11:41
Speaker 2: them up, and so as we're recording this, the other
11:44
Speaker 2: two names being floated are Ronda Santis and Joni Ernst.
11:48
Speaker 2: I believe, yes, Look, they're both fantastic, obviously, but I
11:53
Speaker 2: don't think they should move Pete aside because of these
11:57
Speaker 2: really ridiculous news stories. One of the news stories has
12:01
Speaker 2: him being drunk on set, and every single person who
12:04
Speaker 2: has ever worked with him is saying I've never seen that.
12:07
Speaker 2: Will Keane sat next to him at the morning show,
12:09
Speaker 2: you know, at Box and Friends Weekend for years and
12:12
Speaker 2: years and says I've never seen this. Yeah, So they
12:15
Speaker 2: didn't talk to anybody who would go on the record
12:17
Speaker 2: and say absolutely not. Instead they talk to people who
12:20
Speaker 2: wouldn't give their names who made these allegations against him.
12:23
Speaker 2: I just think it's all really dirty, and I hope
12:26
Speaker 2: that Trump stands firm and says no, this is my nominee.
12:30
Speaker 2: Senators want to vote him down, go ahead and do it.
12:33
Speaker 2: But he's not withdrawing.
12:35
Speaker 1: Yeah. I've known Pete for a long time and we're
12:37
Speaker 1: not super close, but I started I knew him back
12:40
Speaker 1: in two thousand and six. In fact, I may have
12:43
Speaker 1: been one of his first media hits when I had
12:45
Speaker 1: a little YouTube show and I covered the vets for
12:48
Speaker 1: Freedom and the two there's a little clip of two
12:51
Speaker 1: like baby MKH and baby Pete Hegseth talking to each
12:54
Speaker 1: other about that about his tours of Iraq and Afghanistan.
12:59
Speaker 1: He's been working on veterans issues for a long time.
13:02
Speaker 1: I have worked with him professionally in mini settings and
13:05
Speaker 1: never seen anything like what NBC is reporting. And I
13:08
Speaker 1: think we've talked about this before unnamed anonymous sources. Sorry,
13:13
Speaker 1: I'm going to take the named ones over those folks,
13:16
Speaker 1: like I will listen to you. But if there are
13:19
Speaker 1: no named people with their with their stamp on this thing,
13:25
Speaker 1: that becomes a problem for me. And I am resistant
13:27
Speaker 1: to the idea of people being Kavanaugh after what we
13:31
Speaker 1: saw with Kavanaugh, who, by the way, they weren't even
13:34
Speaker 1: capable of kavanaughing him, so like let's say, yeah, it
13:37
Speaker 1: was so ludicrous. By the way, what speaks to the
13:40
Speaker 1: ludicrous of some of these ludicrousness of some of these
13:43
Speaker 1: accusations is that Jane Mayer is the one reporting them. Well,
13:47
Speaker 1: she was the one who reported a crowdsourced memory made
13:52
Speaker 1: up that the accuser herself against Kavanaugh couldn't even remember
13:55
Speaker 1: if he was at the event, there was no accusation there, like,
14:00
Speaker 1: so I'm.
14:01
Speaker 2: Just like, I think I think he was there, like
14:03
Speaker 2: it Just yeah, all of that is just unacceptable.
14:06
Speaker 1: I'm just very wary of it. I'm very wary of
14:09
Speaker 1: the reporting. Pete is a guy who's had a couple
14:13
Speaker 1: of marriages. You know that that's part of the story.
14:16
Speaker 1: But this stuff is going beyond that, right Reporting on
14:20
Speaker 1: his mom's letter to him is beyond that. It is
14:23
Speaker 1: doing this with all unnamed sources about a totally different
14:27
Speaker 1: issue is beyond that. And I don't trust you people, right,
14:32
Speaker 1: I don't trust you people. And I've known Pete for
14:33
Speaker 1: a while, and I think I think you're right to
14:35
Speaker 1: your point about what he's capable of in the job.
14:38
Speaker 1: There are other picks who would do a great job. Sure,
14:40
Speaker 1: I think Pete would probably help with recruiting, and that
14:45
Speaker 1: is an area where we are very weak right now.
14:48
Speaker 2: That's it, so we.
14:49
Speaker 1: Will we will see what happens. But I think a
14:51
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of folks the limitations of this
14:54
Speaker 1: kind of attack are are more obvious than they used to,
15:00
Speaker 1: and we will see what happens.
15:01
Speaker 2: We just can't give in. We can't give in because, look,
15:04
Speaker 2: people forget Kevna was it was. His nomination was in periled.
15:09
Speaker 2: People were starting to get shaky. All the news stories
15:11
Speaker 2: were against him. It was definitely not a given that
15:16
Speaker 2: he was going to continue in the process. But he
15:18
Speaker 2: came out guns blazing and said absolutely not. You're not
15:21
Speaker 2: taking down my reputation. And Pete's sort of doing the same.
15:24
Speaker 2: So I like that. I think that that's where you know,
15:28
Speaker 2: the party needs to be. You can't keep cowering to
15:30
Speaker 2: the New York Times or NBC or whatever they hate
15:34
Speaker 2: us like. It's like, it's just implausible that this should
15:39
Speaker 2: be allowed to go on. When Donald Trump was elected,
15:42
Speaker 2: we know what he was elected to do. He was
15:44
Speaker 2: elected to be outside the box, a little quirky, different, different,
15:49
Speaker 2: and not the same old thing.
15:50
Speaker 1: I also want to note that the folks at NBC
15:54
Speaker 1: who reported on the allegations of drunkenness on set never
15:57
Speaker 1: reached out even to his co hosts who sat next
16:01
Speaker 1: to him on the couch for those early mornings and
16:04
Speaker 1: would have been able to answer to this. Now, you
16:07
Speaker 1: should at least contact them, right They may not give
16:11
Speaker 1: a statement, or they might give a statement that oh,
16:13
Speaker 1: doesn't fit the narrative, which is probably why they didn't
16:16
Speaker 1: reach out to them. Another person reported on x that
16:20
Speaker 1: someone who had been interviewed and gave a positive review
16:23
Speaker 1: of Pete Heggsas's professional comportment was not included in the store.
16:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, so a minute interview that one.
16:29
Speaker 1: I just do. The press is so bad.
16:32
Speaker 2: They're so bad, and we can't let them take down
16:35
Speaker 2: our nominees. And that is what Republicans just need to
16:38
Speaker 2: grow a spine and say we're not standing for this.
16:41
Speaker 2: And I hope they do. I hope they do with
16:42
Speaker 2: hag set I hope he's a line in the sand
16:44
Speaker 2: because also the idea, oh, they're going to just take
16:46
Speaker 2: down Pete Hagseth and then that's it. They're going to
16:48
Speaker 2: be happy with that one. Scalp. No, there's still a
16:51
Speaker 2: lot of other confirmations to go, and it's going to
16:53
Speaker 2: get far worse than this. This is just the first one.
16:56
Speaker 1: And I think I think you're right. I'm comfortable with
16:58
Speaker 1: the Senate asking tough questions, having information absolutely, but like I,
17:03
Speaker 1: you know, those sources should have names for their allegations,
17:06
Speaker 1: and I guess we will. We will see what happens
17:09
Speaker 1: can we talk a little bit about I'm going to
17:11
Speaker 1: use this segue speaking of being impaired on camera. We
17:15
Speaker 1: have to talk about this because it happened over Thanksgiving
17:17
Speaker 1: week and it was a big thing online. I don't
17:20
Speaker 1: know if it was big beyond that. We have Kamala
17:22
Speaker 1: Harris in a straight to camera video that she did.
17:27
Speaker 1: It was part of a zoom call that was sixteen
17:30
Speaker 1: minutes long, happened during Thanksgiving Week. It was released by
17:33
Speaker 1: the official DNC in this thirty second Yeah, this thirty
17:39
Speaker 1: second clip. So let's play that.
17:42
Speaker 3: I just have to remind you, don't you ever let
17:47
Speaker 3: anybody take your power from you. You have the same
17:51
Speaker 3: power that you did before November fifth, and you have
17:55
Speaker 3: the same purpose that you did, and you have the
18:00
Speaker 3: same ability to engage and inspire. So don't ever let
18:07
Speaker 3: anybody or any circumstance take your power from you.
18:11
Speaker 1: We're gonna get some unnamed sources talking to us about
18:13
Speaker 1: exactly what's happening there because I'd love to hear about it.
18:17
Speaker 2: Who watched the video and was like, yes, America needs
18:20
Speaker 2: to see this.
18:21
Speaker 1: I mean, this was her first outing post concession speech, right,
18:26
Speaker 1: And I watched the whole sixteen minute appearance to make
18:30
Speaker 1: sure that you know, we thank you for that. Maybe
18:33
Speaker 1: I wasn't, you know, clear on exactly what was happening here.
18:37
Speaker 1: The whole thing is stumbling. The syntax is wrong. My
18:41
Speaker 1: favorite moment was the work continues, the work must continues,
18:49
Speaker 1: and I just yeah, I know there will be no rumors. Well,
18:54
Speaker 1: and there's no curiosity about it, right, unlike with Pete
18:57
Speaker 1: Hegsath right, the media is not at all interest in
19:00
Speaker 1: what's happening here. And I'm interested in what's happening here
19:03
Speaker 1: because I feel like, and I think the American people
19:06
Speaker 1: felt like the Democrats put up too somewhat incapacitated people
19:11
Speaker 1: in a row to run for the most important job
19:15
Speaker 1: on Earth, and they lied to us about it, right.
19:19
Speaker 2: Like does Kamala Harris have a drinking problem? Let's just
19:21
Speaker 2: say it, right, Yeah, And it's like we don't know
19:24
Speaker 2: because nobody wants to know.
19:26
Speaker 1: Something's happening in the that clip.
19:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, something is definitely you know. I think Bridget VETTIESI
19:31
Speaker 2: said it was like when she used to do drugs
19:33
Speaker 2: and she'd like run into a front in the bathroom
19:35
Speaker 2: and be like, you can do so much better than him. Like,
19:37
Speaker 2: I just love you so much, you know, and it
19:39
Speaker 2: just yeah, I don't know, no curiosity, and.
19:43
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, the standard is completely different. And I do
19:46
Speaker 1: think that part of the rebuke of Democrats has been like,
19:51
Speaker 1: you can't tell us that these folks are good, right,
19:56
Speaker 1: you can't keep telling us that, right because for itself.
20:02
Speaker 1: And I imagine that perhaps that was released because people
20:05
Speaker 1: saw her bumping to the top of twenty twenty eight
20:08
Speaker 1: polling and we're like.
20:09
Speaker 2: Hmm, interesting, Oh, so it wasn't to help her. It
20:12
Speaker 2: really was to hurt her, very Biden at the debate
20:15
Speaker 2: kind of thing.
20:16
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe, yeah.
20:19
Speaker 2: That's just speculation because that like, who saw that video.
20:23
Speaker 2: I was like, we need to release this only somebody
20:27
Speaker 2: who wanted to harm her.
20:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what it feels like. But she's she's not
20:32
Speaker 1: the only one absent. The president remains. Yeah, really in
20:36
Speaker 1: the game. He issued the pardon for Hunter. He went
20:39
Speaker 1: off to Angola, but there's already a clip out of
20:42
Speaker 1: him being led around by an official and Angola by
20:46
Speaker 1: the hand because he can't really find his way around.
20:48
Speaker 1: I mean, it's yeah, it's bad.
20:51
Speaker 2: It's bad, and we're allowed to kind of talk about
20:53
Speaker 2: it now. Right, we're allowed to talk about that. It
20:54
Speaker 2: looks like he fell asleep. But at the table there,
20:57
Speaker 2: and it's not a good scene. Our president looks extremely weak.
21:01
Speaker 2: We're actually quite lucky that nothing really bad has happened
21:04
Speaker 2: in the last few months that would necessitate America having
21:08
Speaker 2: a president. So yeah, it's not a good scene over there.
21:11
Speaker 1: He also, I don't know if you mentioned this, but
21:13
Speaker 1: Biden missed the family photo in the G twenty in
21:18
Speaker 1: his last G twenty event. And look, I think he's
21:20
Speaker 1: so marginalized, which the US should not be, that they
21:23
Speaker 1: went ahead with the photo even though he wasn't there.
21:25
Speaker 2: The American president is here, it's fine. Is not here,
21:28
Speaker 2: It's fine.
21:28
Speaker 1: That's okay.
21:29
Speaker 2: But you know, I also wonder about these stories, like
21:32
Speaker 2: are we going to hear the real thing after this
21:34
Speaker 2: term is actually over. Are we going to hear about
21:37
Speaker 2: Kamala's drinking? Are we going to hear about how bad
21:40
Speaker 2: it was with Biden? Because we are seeing kind of
21:43
Speaker 2: a glimpse of that now now that they no longer
21:45
Speaker 2: need these two anymore. The New York Times has had
21:48
Speaker 2: a story yesterday where they're talking about Biden not doing
21:53
Speaker 2: press conferences and everyone on the right is like, yeah,
21:56
Speaker 2: he has not been doing press conference for years. Have
21:59
Speaker 2: you not noticed? It's kind of a whole thing. But
22:02
Speaker 2: so here I'm going to read a little bit in
22:04
Speaker 2: that column in The Times. Mister Biden is sliding toward
22:08
Speaker 2: the end of his presidency in lackluster fashion. He has
22:11
Speaker 2: largely seated the stage to mister Trump, who was already
22:13
Speaker 2: conducting his own foreign policy without waiting to take office
22:16
Speaker 2: and building a wish list, or his administration stocked with
22:19
Speaker 2: once fringe figures content on dismantling the very departments they
22:23
Speaker 2: are being assigned to run. Love that withdrawing from the fray.
22:26
Speaker 2: Mister Biden maintains a light public schedule and has not
22:28
Speaker 2: held a news conference or given an interview since the election. Yeah,
22:33
Speaker 2: light schedule. I feel like we've mentioned that once or twice.
22:36
Speaker 1: And by the way, it wasn't just his schedule that
22:39
Speaker 1: was light. Kamala Harris's schedule on the trail was light.
22:43
Speaker 1: She took days and days off to prepare for events,
22:47
Speaker 1: to prepare for debates or even just campaign events or
22:50
Speaker 1: the DNC. They had a really truncated schedule and yet
22:55
Speaker 1: she was taken days off and that never seen this
22:58
Speaker 1: bizarre to me, and it again makes me wonder about
23:02
Speaker 1: both of.
23:03
Speaker 2: The right exactly. But the New York Times now discovering
23:08
Speaker 2: his light schedule, you know, what do they want us
23:10
Speaker 2: to do with that. We're not supposed to mock that,
23:12
Speaker 2: because I feel very much mocking that.
23:15
Speaker 1: I think the right has.
23:16
Speaker 2: Been talking about this for years, years and years of
23:19
Speaker 2: Biden at the beach, Biden not doing press conferences, Biden
23:22
Speaker 2: not doing interviews, Kamala not doing interviews, Kamala not doing
23:25
Speaker 2: press conferences, Kamala's absenteeism. She took six days in Hawaii
23:29
Speaker 2: after the election was over. I can't get away for sixties.
23:32
Speaker 3: I know.
23:33
Speaker 1: But she's also really dedicated podcast. She's also really dedicated
23:37
Speaker 1: to getting the hostages home, and in addition to being
23:40
Speaker 1: in Hawaii for six stays. I mean, that was the story, right,
23:42
Speaker 1: It's like, I'm her pitch to voters was like, I'm
23:45
Speaker 1: so dedicated to the border, to getting hostages home. Yeah,
23:49
Speaker 1: that I'm working tirelessly. But it turns out she wasn't
23:52
Speaker 1: even at the time working tirelessly and is now definitely
23:56
Speaker 1: not right.
23:57
Speaker 2: So now she's fully not working tirelessly. Whatever the opposite
24:00
Speaker 2: of that would.
24:01
Speaker 1: Be yes, people can see what's happening. Just since we're
24:04
Speaker 1: on the Biden subject, can I throw in a little
24:08
Speaker 1: funny story about Anna Navarro, who is of course a
24:12
Speaker 1: big Biden booster member of the View cast. Do you
24:16
Speaker 1: remember that brief moment where the View was like, maybe
24:18
Speaker 1: we need some Trump supporters. There was like a one
24:22
Speaker 1: news story, by the way, yesterday they had on Abby
24:25
Speaker 1: Huntsman and Rachel Lindsay, the Bachelorette contestant most famous for
24:31
Speaker 1: canceling Chris Harrison for not canceling another Bachelorette contestant hard enough.
24:36
Speaker 1: So that's the best they can do for you. But
24:40
Speaker 1: Anna Navarro of the View was talking about the pardon
24:44
Speaker 1: and tweeted, hey, guys, Woodrow Wilson pardoned his brother in
24:49
Speaker 1: law Hunter Debts, d e b u Tts, Bill Clinton
24:53
Speaker 1: pardoned his brother Roger. Donald Trump pardoned his daughter's father
24:56
Speaker 1: in law, Charlie Kushner, and just appointed him ambassador to France.
24:59
Speaker 1: But tell me again how Joe Biden is setting precedent.
25:02
Speaker 1: Laffy face, laughy face, Okay, very condescending. She's done her research,
25:08
Speaker 1: Carol de Butts. De Butts ain't true. What it is
25:13
Speaker 1: is she cribbed from chat GBT and chat GPT had
25:16
Speaker 1: one of its hallucinations about Hunter debuts. So when called
25:20
Speaker 1: out on this by Community Notes and others, she says, Hey,
25:24
Speaker 1: Twitter sleuth, thanks for taking the time to provide context.
25:28
Speaker 1: Take it up with chat GPT. So she just admits
25:32
Speaker 1: that her research is cribbing chat GPT with no checking,
25:36
Speaker 1: and that's on us.
25:38
Speaker 2: Okay, how dare we how dare we.
25:41
Speaker 1: Notice that Hunter debuts is not real? Right? Right?
25:45
Speaker 2: My kids would get kicked out of school for that.
25:47
Speaker 1: Just I mean why it should be embarrassing, But I
25:50
Speaker 1: don't think folks who do that are capable of it.
25:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, the lack of embarrassment is why she's on the view.
25:57
Speaker 1: So amazing stuff, amazing stuff.
26:00
Speaker 2: It's I'm not holding my breath for a Trump supporter
26:03
Speaker 2: on the view. I'd like somebody who maybe just doesn't
26:05
Speaker 2: despise Trump supporters. I think that would be like a
26:08
Speaker 2: step in the right direction.
26:09
Speaker 1: An improvement.
26:11
Speaker 2: I don't think they have that. I don't think they're
26:13
Speaker 2: going to have that. I'm kind of given up on
26:15
Speaker 2: that idea. We're going to take a short break and
26:17
Speaker 2: come right back with normally, So It's funny that the
26:23
Speaker 2: Times admits that Trump is already running his foreign policy.
26:27
Speaker 2: Yesterday he posted on his truth social everybody's talking about
26:32
Speaker 2: the hostages who are being so held so violently and
26:35
Speaker 2: humanely and against the will of the entire world in
26:37
Speaker 2: the Middle East. But it's all talk and no action.
26:39
Speaker 2: Please let this truth serve to represent it. If the
26:41
Speaker 2: hostages are not released prior to the date he assumes office,
26:45
Speaker 2: there will be all held to pay in the Middle East,
26:47
Speaker 2: and for those in charge who perpetrated these I mean,
26:52
Speaker 2: I swooned. I was like, yes, this is what we
26:54
Speaker 2: needed to hear for a year. You know, Y're thus
26:57
Speaker 2: already I love that obviously. You know what else this
27:00
Speaker 2: is interesting. It's very obvious that he wrote it himself.
27:02
Speaker 2: There's like random capitalization and like y he wrote that.
27:07
Speaker 2: Donald Trump got on his phone and put that up.
27:11
Speaker 2: And so I love it. Can't love it anymore than
27:13
Speaker 2: I do. I love his foreign policy already. I'm very
27:16
Speaker 2: happy with that. You know, bring the hostages home absolutely.
27:20
Speaker 2: You know. Also, in the days since we last reported
27:24
Speaker 2: an American hostage who was kidnapped on October seventh, turns
27:28
Speaker 2: out he was killed, And so you know, I'd like
27:31
Speaker 2: to think that the price of killing Americans should be high,
27:35
Speaker 2: and I think that with a Donald Trump administration, we
27:38
Speaker 2: may actually have.
27:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, his name was Omar Neutra and terrible news. And
27:45
Speaker 1: it's nice to see someone be like mad about it, right,
27:48
Speaker 1: who is a leader in American politics? Because people should
27:51
Speaker 1: be mad about it.
27:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it. And so yeah, I love the idea
27:57
Speaker 2: that Trump is already running his foreign policy. I'll just
28:00
Speaker 2: add another little quirk for kind of inside baseball. But
28:03
Speaker 2: it's interesting Bibi Netanya, whose wife and son had dined
28:06
Speaker 2: with Trump at mar A Lago the day before. I
28:10
Speaker 2: just in a funny turn of events, you know, the
28:12
Speaker 2: next day he tweets this or posted on his truth
28:15
Speaker 2: social the Israeli left will just collapse and die. If
28:19
Speaker 2: it was actually Bibi Netanya, who's son and wife who
28:22
Speaker 2: ended up getting the hostages home, you know, via Trump,
28:25
Speaker 2: I think they'll just it's just it's such a politicized
28:27
Speaker 2: moment over there, just for the kind of color of
28:30
Speaker 2: the story. If it was Bibe Netnaw who's son who
28:33
Speaker 2: got in Trump's ear, I mean, I love it, and
28:36
Speaker 2: Israeli left will very much not well.
28:38
Speaker 1: Mar A Lago is the place to be because he
28:40
Speaker 1: very much is sort of the default president right now
28:43
Speaker 1: because there is no actual president and I don't know
28:45
Speaker 1: what the vice president is doing. So Trudeau's down there.
28:49
Speaker 1: Everybody's hanging out at mar A Lago, so check in
28:52
Speaker 1: there if you need foreign policy changes.
28:54
Speaker 3: So that's it.
28:55
Speaker 2: Well, thanks for joining us on Normally Normally airs Tuesdays
28:58
Speaker 2: and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
29:01
Speaker 2: To get in touch with us at Normallythepod at gmail
29:04
Speaker 2: dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things get weird,
29:07
Speaker 2: act normally