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Hunter Biden's 'Comeback' Now Features Nick Fuentes · 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 Garritty of National Review.
0:10
Speaker 1: Free Martini's coming up.
0:13
Speaker 2: So glad you're with us for the Tuesday edition of
0:15
Speaker 2: The Three Martini Lunch. Jim, We're gonna just dive into
0:19
Speaker 2: the crazy to start off with today. And you know,
0:22
Speaker 2: it's bad enough that we ever have to do and
0:25
Speaker 2: talk about in depth Hunter Biden and all of his
0:29
Speaker 2: sordid past. And it's always very distasteful to talk about
0:33
Speaker 2: Nick Fuentes and his odious views and how he's infiltrated
0:37
Speaker 2: certain elements of the right. Now he identifies as a Democrat. Thankfully, Democrats,
0:41
Speaker 2: he's your problem now. And maybe that's why there's a
0:44
Speaker 2: crossover between Hunter Biden and Nick Fuentes on what's called
0:48
Speaker 2: the Channel five. I think it's a podcast with this
0:52
Speaker 2: other guy who's apparently broker. This podcast they've recorded hasn't
0:56
Speaker 2: been released yet for some reason. They met in a
0:58
Speaker 2: Philadelphia hotel room. Jim, I wouldn't want to meet Hunter
1:01
Speaker 2: Biden anywhere. I'm definitely not going to meet Hunter Biden
1:04
Speaker 2: in a hotel room under any circumstances, and you know,
1:08
Speaker 2: we're getting dribs and drabs of what happened here. In
1:11
Speaker 2: some places they tried to find agreement. In other places
1:13
Speaker 2: they were so mad at each other they came to blows,
1:15
Speaker 2: which you know, I think that's pretty much every conversation
1:19
Speaker 2: a normal person has with Nick Fuentas. But even Hunter Biden,
1:22
Speaker 2: who's definitely not normal, might certainly run into some very
1:26
Speaker 2: sharp disagreements with Nick fuente. So two guys you really
1:28
Speaker 2: don't want to have anything to do with, two guys
1:30
Speaker 2: who won't go away.
1:32
Speaker 3: What do you make of this?
1:33
Speaker 1: Sure? Well, first of all, if they did get into
1:36
Speaker 1: a fistfight, I know we all would be rooting for injuries.
1:41
Speaker 1: So people might say, O, why are you talking about
1:43
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden? Well, one, it was kind of interesting. About
1:46
Speaker 1: a month or two ago you could find a lot
1:48
Speaker 1: of mainstream media institutions, including The Atlantic, who said that
1:52
Speaker 1: Hunter Biden was making this media comeback and was on
1:56
Speaker 1: this charm offensive and he was winning people. Now, Greg,
2:01
Speaker 1: one of the examples they cited was that Hunter Biden
2:03
Speaker 1: had gone on Candace Owen's podcast. Now, I think Hunter
2:08
Speaker 1: Biden is a deeply, deeply troubled man who has just
2:12
Speaker 1: this uncontrollable urge to do the wrong thing in almost
2:15
Speaker 1: every circumstance. I don't think going on Candace Owen's podcast
2:19
Speaker 1: is some remarkable victory or remarkable good thing to have done.
2:24
Speaker 1: I think she too is cuckoo for cocoa puffs in
2:26
Speaker 1: a very borderline satanically evil way, haranguing the Kirk family
2:34
Speaker 1: and all that. So there's just kind of the sense
2:36
Speaker 1: like why who is the cheapest date in the world
2:39
Speaker 1: of the mainstream media to see Hunter Biden doing these
2:42
Speaker 1: things and say, oh, it's time to write the story
2:44
Speaker 1: on the Hunter Biden comeback. Because also, like, why do
2:46
Speaker 1: you sit down with Nick Fuentez Nick Wente, Like, oh,
2:49
Speaker 1: I want to expose his bad things? No, Nick Fuentes
2:52
Speaker 1: does this podcast every day for like three hours, exposing
2:57
Speaker 1: all of his horrible, hideous thoughts, right, So it's not
3:00
Speaker 1: like we need further attention called upon Nick Fuentes. Secondly,
3:04
Speaker 1: you're not going to talk him out of his bad ideas.
3:06
Speaker 1: This is not you know, Dick qwent has has had
3:08
Speaker 1: plenty of opportunities to change his mind, he has never
3:10
Speaker 1: taken them. You do this if you're Hunter Biden you're
3:13
Speaker 1: absolutely desperate for attention. And I think you know that,
3:16
Speaker 1: like you know, he spent a lot of time with
3:19
Speaker 1: regular horrors. He's now in the attention who stage of
3:21
Speaker 1: his career, and I just I there's a part of it,
3:24
Speaker 1: it's like the rest. So I wrote about this at
3:26
Speaker 1: the tail end of Today's Morning Joelt and one of
3:27
Speaker 1: the things is like, remember how often we were told
3:29
Speaker 1: what a good family the Biden family was, and what
3:32
Speaker 1: good people they were, and how they were honest and
3:35
Speaker 1: hard working and ethical and everybody related to them because
3:38
Speaker 1: of the family tragedies. That's not the case. Hunter Biden
3:42
Speaker 1: is not a good person. People who read through Jill
3:45
Speaker 1: Biden's very self serving and borderline fictional memoir do not
3:50
Speaker 1: come away with it. So coming away from fact that
3:52
Speaker 1: she is a good person. Joe Biden we have not
3:54
Speaker 1: heard from barely since he left the presidency. I hope
3:57
Speaker 1: he's doing well with his cancer treatments. Believe he made
4:00
Speaker 1: his last treatment last November. But we haven't seen this guy,
4:03
Speaker 1: which is a sign that he's in really rough shape,
4:05
Speaker 1: which is a sign that he could not have served
4:06
Speaker 1: a second term. These are not good people, These are
4:09
Speaker 1: not honest people. These are not. And there's a part
4:11
Speaker 1: don't tell me that Hunter Biden is this, you know, misunderstood,
4:16
Speaker 1: troubled guy who deserves a second chance, and then watch
4:19
Speaker 1: him sit down with Nick went Is. No, he was
4:20
Speaker 1: exactly the same person he always was. So I'm just
4:23
Speaker 1: remembering there's just this endless supply of second chances for
4:28
Speaker 1: the Biden family from the mainstream media, and I just
4:30
Speaker 1: want to say to them, how can we miss you
4:33
Speaker 1: if you'll never go away?
4:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, Hunter Biden joining Twitter was like Ojay joining Twitter,
4:37
Speaker 2: and it's like, no one was pining for this. Now
4:41
Speaker 2: Hunter Biden, I.
4:43
Speaker 1: Was gonna say, you know, first of all, Hunter lost
4:44
Speaker 1: the gun. Oh j used a knife. There's a totally
4:47
Speaker 1: different circumstance.
4:48
Speaker 2: Yes, Now, Hunter Biden has not killed anyone, has ruined
4:51
Speaker 2: a lot of lives, including his own, including his own,
4:54
Speaker 2: including his sister in law slash girlfriend. That that was
4:58
Speaker 2: a whole weird situation, the abandoning of the child out
5:02
Speaker 2: of wedlock, and so forth. I mean, this is a
5:04
Speaker 2: train wreck that's gone in a number of different directions here.
5:06
Speaker 2: So yeah, nobody was pining for this. But you're right
5:09
Speaker 2: about the cheap date with the media. Oh my goodness,
5:12
Speaker 2: the guy comes on and has, you know, a few
5:14
Speaker 2: semi coherent thoughts, and all of a sudden it's the
5:16
Speaker 2: comeback to her. It's just unbelievable. How are they that coherent?
5:21
Speaker 3: Greg?
5:21
Speaker 1: Anyway?
5:21
Speaker 2: So yes to what I expected from him, Yeah, yeah,
5:25
Speaker 2: But I mean it's not like he's dropping pearls of
5:28
Speaker 2: wisdom here. He's just you know, able to speak in
5:31
Speaker 2: complete sentences. But so good to have neither of them
5:34
Speaker 2: affiliated with the right anymore. So we don't even have
5:36
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Speaker 2: All right, Jim onto the economy now, and the inflation
6:55
Speaker 2: rate is still not great, but it's a little bit
6:57
Speaker 2: better than it was. Three point five percent the latest
7:01
Speaker 2: number compared to the expectation of three point eight, which
7:05
Speaker 2: is always nice to see and certainly better than the
7:07
Speaker 2: four point two real number that we got last month.
7:10
Speaker 2: Of course, it seems like we're back with hostilities now,
7:13
Speaker 2: and that means the price of oil could be fluctuating
7:16
Speaker 2: if we're not in completely control of the straits of
7:18
Speaker 2: horror moves. You know, oil prices have already shot up.
7:20
Speaker 2: I think the closest we saw the last couple of
7:23
Speaker 2: days here is eighty dollars a barrel, and obviously that's
7:25
Speaker 2: going to be a little bit of a pinch on
7:27
Speaker 2: the wallet, and of course that makes everything else.
7:29
Speaker 3: Go up too. If if oil prices are high, so.
7:32
Speaker 2: Inching in the right direction, at least in the moment,
7:35
Speaker 2: let's hope it continues.
7:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want to oversell this. This is not
7:38
Speaker 1: a great inflation number. In fact, if you just kind of,
7:41
Speaker 1: you know, woke me up and said the inflation rate
7:43
Speaker 1: is three point five percent, I probably you know. But
7:46
Speaker 1: then if you say they're expecting three point eight percent, okay,
7:49
Speaker 1: that's better than you know. And then when you think
7:50
Speaker 1: about last month of being four point two percent, yeah,
7:53
Speaker 1: I think you if there'd been two straight months of
7:56
Speaker 1: around four percent inflation, this would turn it into a
7:59
Speaker 1: major narrow heading into the midterms. The fact that it's
8:02
Speaker 1: down to three point five again not great, but you know,
8:05
Speaker 1: this kind of mitigates this. If you're a Republican and
8:09
Speaker 1: you're heading into the midterms and we'll be talking a
8:11
Speaker 1: bit more about this in our next Martini. This is
8:14
Speaker 1: not exactly the economy you'd want. This is the inflation
8:17
Speaker 1: rate is a little too high, the unemployment rates up
8:19
Speaker 1: a little bit more higher than you would have liked
8:21
Speaker 1: to have seen. You know, people are not feeling great.
8:23
Speaker 1: Gas prices are higher because of the war in Iran
8:26
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But also like we're not in
8:28
Speaker 1: a recession. GDP keeps going up. Unemployment is low by
8:32
Speaker 1: historical standards, even if it's inched up over the past year,
8:36
Speaker 1: and people's four oh one ks are doing pretty good.
8:38
Speaker 1: The stock market used to go to new heights, so
8:41
Speaker 1: you look at you know, there's an AI investment boom
8:45
Speaker 1: that is helping, and because of that, there's a lot
8:47
Speaker 1: of you know, energy investment boom. Of course, we can't
8:49
Speaker 1: build nuclear plants, that we can't build data centers, but
8:51
Speaker 1: we're still going to enjoy a lot of prosperity. Greg's
8:53
Speaker 1: that's so it's a mixed bag in terms of the
8:57
Speaker 1: economy heading into this. There's still a little bit of time,
8:59
Speaker 1: but I was I've looked at it. It's kind of shocking.
9:01
Speaker 1: In our home state of Virginia, Greg, as well as
9:03
Speaker 1: in Minnesota, and I believe South Dakota people start voting
9:08
Speaker 1: in sixty six days, so the now very few people
9:12
Speaker 1: vote on the first day of early voting, But it
9:15
Speaker 1: does give you a sense that like that the clock
9:17
Speaker 1: is ticking. The amount of time you have to shape
9:20
Speaker 1: people's perceptions of the economy, of the state, of the country,
9:23
Speaker 1: of how things are going, both in Washington and in
9:25
Speaker 1: their personal lives. The time is running out. The cement
9:28
Speaker 1: is starting to harden. So if you're a Republican, you
9:30
Speaker 1: want these numbers to be looking as good as possible.
9:33
Speaker 1: Not great today, could be better, And I think it's
9:35
Speaker 1: important that the Republicans, you know, emphasize as much as
9:39
Speaker 1: they've gotten done, including the housing built that the President
9:41
Speaker 1: did not want to sign, they will pass without his signature.
9:45
Speaker 1: So you get done what you can get done, and
9:47
Speaker 1: you go into it and hopefully you have a bit
9:49
Speaker 1: of a headwind in the last couple of months. You know,
9:52
Speaker 1: maybe the inflation rate to be a little bit better
9:53
Speaker 1: the next couple of months, and that would be a
9:54
Speaker 1: nice message for the administration to take into November.
9:57
Speaker 2: That sixty six day mark for the start of early
10:00
Speaker 2: voting in some states is insane considering the Virginia primaries
10:03
Speaker 2: not for twenty one.
10:04
Speaker 3: More days, don't even know exactly who's.
10:06
Speaker 2: In the general election yet, but a little bit more
10:08
Speaker 2: than a month after that, they're going to throw you
10:10
Speaker 2: into the general election if you want to do it
10:12
Speaker 2: that early. So Jim, when it comes to afford to billit,
10:15
Speaker 2: I think the number one thing we learned from the
10:16
Speaker 2: Biden years, and hopefully the Trump folks are learning this,
10:19
Speaker 2: but I think it's harder for some folks than others
10:20
Speaker 2: to do this is to admit that families are dealing
10:23
Speaker 2: with high prices, to admit that, you know, acknowledge the issue.
10:27
Speaker 2: Of course, what do you think would be the best
10:30
Speaker 2: or smartest ways for the Republican Congress to move on
10:33
Speaker 2: some of these issues? They obviously had the one big
10:35
Speaker 2: beautiful bill last year. You know, some people are talking taxes,
10:38
Speaker 2: some people were talking regulation. You mentioned some people think
10:41
Speaker 2: the housing bill will help in that sense. Other conservatives
10:43
Speaker 2: don't like it very much. But in the end, what
10:46
Speaker 2: actually could come from the federal government, whether it's from
10:49
Speaker 2: the executive branch or the legislative branch, that could actually
10:52
Speaker 2: even if it doesn't immediately make a difference at least
10:54
Speaker 2: people will see we're working on this.
10:55
Speaker 1: Well. First of all, acknowledge it's easier to deal with
10:58
Speaker 1: these things when you have two years to midterm than
11:00
Speaker 1: when you have two months or so before people start
11:02
Speaker 1: voting in the midterms. But yeah, my first thought is regulation.
11:06
Speaker 1: My first thought is anything that is restraining energy production.
11:09
Speaker 1: Like you're at war with Iran. The Iranian mullas you know,
11:11
Speaker 1: put themselves in these situations. The war is probably our
11:14
Speaker 1: conflict as of this recording does not look like it's
11:17
Speaker 1: going to wrap itself up anytime soon, so that can't
11:19
Speaker 1: be helped, that can't be avoided. You're gonna want to
11:22
Speaker 1: do as much domestic production as possibly. You want to
11:23
Speaker 1: do as much domestic oil refineries as possible. We have
11:26
Speaker 1: not built a new refinery in this country and about
11:28
Speaker 1: a generation or so, so I would be doing as
11:30
Speaker 1: much as say, Look, you know, we understand there are
11:32
Speaker 1: circumstances which government is the problem. Government is restraining the economy.
11:38
Speaker 1: We're doing everything we can to chop it lift and
11:40
Speaker 1: they have seen some good improvement in places at the EPA.
11:42
Speaker 1: Like you and I don't feel like we hear from
11:45
Speaker 1: Chris Wright, the energy secretary as often as we'd like.
11:48
Speaker 1: We don't hear from Lee Zelden, the EPA administrator as
11:52
Speaker 1: often as we'd like. This is administration where it's tough
11:55
Speaker 1: to be. Cabinet members don't always get the attention that
11:59
Speaker 1: they probably would like because the president is such a
12:01
Speaker 1: larger than life personality. These are the sorts of things
12:04
Speaker 1: that they need to point out that when Democrats get
12:07
Speaker 1: put into power. I er Governor Atigail Spenberger. The first
12:11
Speaker 1: thing she did was join the Compact of several states,
12:14
Speaker 1: which increased electricity prices. And to emphasize every time Democrats
12:18
Speaker 1: say we're going to help you by your costs of living,
12:21
Speaker 1: they do things that make things more expensive. Big government
12:25
Speaker 1: makes things more expensive. And if you hammer that message home,
12:28
Speaker 1: you can probably mitigate some of the damage of an
12:30
Speaker 1: economy that is not what you'd like to see heading
12:32
Speaker 1: into a interim election.
12:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
12:34
Speaker 2: I think the failed promises of the Virginia Democrats would
12:36
Speaker 2: be smart, certainly in Virginia, but it might help elsewhere.
12:39
Speaker 3: I think it's a little bit hard.
12:40
Speaker 2: For Republicans to talk about the wins they did get
12:43
Speaker 2: in the One Big Beautiful Bill. I think it's a
12:44
Speaker 2: lot easier and more effective to say, hey, I lowered
12:47
Speaker 2: your taxes as opposed to hey, I stopped your taxes
12:49
Speaker 2: from going up, which would have happened if we hadn't
12:51
Speaker 2: passed this thing.
12:52
Speaker 3: So I don't know.
12:54
Speaker 1: And finally, like, don't have tariffs, don't make importing goods
12:56
Speaker 1: more expensive. I know the President is like deeply committed
12:59
Speaker 1: to this. This is one of the things that he
13:01
Speaker 1: totally believes in, but that does not help things in
13:03
Speaker 1: the last a year and a half or so.
13:05
Speaker 2: It's going to be interesting to see. But I think, yeah,
13:08
Speaker 2: showing that you actually are not pretending you are actually
13:12
Speaker 2: aware of the issue and trying to help people get
13:14
Speaker 2: through that is great.
13:15
Speaker 3: And regulation is.
13:16
Speaker 2: Probably the easiest and simplest way to do it, because
13:18
Speaker 2: getting enough votes in the Senate is going to be tough.
13:20
Speaker 2: But we're talking about the Senate here in just a
13:22
Speaker 2: little bit when it comes to what the President maybe
13:26
Speaker 2: speaking about Thursday night, as well as the changes that
13:29
Speaker 2: we're now seeing in the Senate with Lindsay Graham's sister
13:32
Speaker 2: coming in to replace him following his tragic death on Saturday.
13:35
Speaker 2: But all of that in just a moment for right now,
13:38
Speaker 2: let's talk about your business. I'm sure you would love
13:40
Speaker 2: some more deregulation. I'm sure you'd love some more tax relief.
13:43
Speaker 2: I'm sure we'd love another way for just the government
13:45
Speaker 2: to get out of the way and let you thrive.
13:47
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Speaker 2: onto our crazy Martini now here and I guess mostly
14:51
Speaker 2: potentially crazy Martini. The President says he's going to address
14:54
Speaker 2: the nation in primetime nine pm Eastern Time Thursday. Has
14:57
Speaker 2: not officially given a topic e yet, so I'm assumed
15:01
Speaker 2: it would be about a rand since the hostilities are
15:03
Speaker 2: ramping up there. But the reports were getting so far
15:05
Speaker 2: as that the president is going to argue that in
15:08
Speaker 2: twenty twenty there was a certain nation that was very
15:11
Speaker 2: much trying to meddle in those elections.
15:15
Speaker 3: I'm not sure.
15:16
Speaker 2: Exactly what he's going to say, but apparently some intelligence
15:18
Speaker 2: has recently been declassified on this topic, and so he's
15:21
Speaker 2: going to get into that. One of the top line
15:23
Speaker 2: headlines is that he's going to claim that both of
15:25
Speaker 2: the Georgia senators elected that year who were still in office,
15:28
Speaker 2: John Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, were elected illegitimately. We'll see
15:33
Speaker 2: what happens, what he says, and if he actually gets
15:35
Speaker 2: to that, but that's the reporting right now. Democrats just
15:39
Speaker 2: at the beginning of this.
15:40
Speaker 3: Will say, oh, how could you possibly.
15:43
Speaker 2: Allege that another country was trying to meddle in the elections.
15:45
Speaker 2: How absurd given what they did in twenty sixteen with
15:49
Speaker 2: Russia and what was at the Macedonian content farms, with
15:53
Speaker 2: all those Facebook memes that obviously obviously tilted the balance.
15:56
Speaker 2: But Jim, the question is we're talking about in the
16:01
Speaker 2: last Martini. Is this what the American people want to
16:03
Speaker 2: be focused on right now? And even if it is true,
16:05
Speaker 2: what could you do about it at this point?
16:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, first of all, the initial report was that, yes,
16:09
Speaker 1: the President's going to focus about the twenty twenty election.
16:12
Speaker 1: Since then they've said it's going to be a pot pourri.
16:15
Speaker 1: That's a direct word. I think of potpourri is like,
16:17
Speaker 1: you know, the the Jeopardy category. It's going to be
16:20
Speaker 1: a variety of topics. So maybe it's not. Maybe they're
16:22
Speaker 1: trying to talk him out of this, because I got
16:24
Speaker 1: to be honest, as you're looking at these twenty twenty
16:25
Speaker 1: six midterms that are traditionally go very hard for the
16:28
Speaker 1: president's party, you know, redistricting, You might mitigate it a
16:31
Speaker 1: bit here and there, but it's not looking great. You know,
16:33
Speaker 1: the president's job approval ratings around forty percent. The other
16:37
Speaker 1: day on True's social Trump insisted it was fifty nine
16:39
Speaker 1: percent and that that may be it among the White
16:42
Speaker 1: House staff or so, but like that's you know, it's
16:45
Speaker 1: not great and you'd like to have a good There's
16:47
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with the president addressing the country in primetime.
16:50
Speaker 1: I think it's an underrated, underutilized option for communicating. Reagan
16:54
Speaker 1: was the master of this. Off the top of my head, greg,
16:57
Speaker 1: I don't remember Reagan doing a lot of addresses that
16:59
Speaker 1: were about multiple topics. I think it's probably a good
17:01
Speaker 1: idea to have one clear message you want to share
17:04
Speaker 1: with the American public. And I don't think Bill poulti
17:09
Speaker 1: has just found this file that indicates that two of
17:11
Speaker 1: our elections were stolen, is really the message you want
17:13
Speaker 1: to go with, considering the state of the economy and
17:16
Speaker 1: things like that that we talked about. We'll see what
17:18
Speaker 1: he has to show. I have a very hard time
17:20
Speaker 1: believing that there's some sort of smoking gun out there
17:23
Speaker 1: on the issue of foreigner's attempting to influence our election. Yes,
17:26
Speaker 1: absolutely that happens. And you know what are the points
17:28
Speaker 1: that has bugged me. Russia puts enormous effort into foreign
17:31
Speaker 1: propaganda efforts all around the world, everything from RT television
17:35
Speaker 1: to Sputnick to more surreptitious ones online bought farms the
17:40
Speaker 1: Internet Research Agency in Saint Petersburg. But they're not alone.
17:43
Speaker 1: The Chinese do it, the Iranians do it. Pay people
17:46
Speaker 1: have seen this really like surprisingly well done. I mean, well,
17:50
Speaker 1: they're terrible, but it is surprisingly high quality lego rap
17:56
Speaker 1: videos indicating that Trump is controlled by the Jews and
17:59
Speaker 1: Americans are suffering and he's doing this all at the like,
18:02
Speaker 1: it's terrible, but it's surprisingly creed like they've made for
18:07
Speaker 1: hostile foreign propaganda, somewhat entertaining. It's not the usual, you know,
18:12
Speaker 1: guy ranting from behind a desk or something like that.
18:14
Speaker 1: So I look at this like, okay, So if Russia, China,
18:17
Speaker 1: and Iran, our enemies all put hundreds of millions of dollars,
18:22
Speaker 1: someone put billions of dollars into foreign propaganda efforts and
18:26
Speaker 1: to influence public opinion in other countries. Why do they
18:29
Speaker 1: do this? Are they just a wash in money? No,
18:31
Speaker 1: they do it because it's worthwhile. They do it because
18:34
Speaker 1: they think it's a worthwhile expenditure. Because they want us
18:37
Speaker 1: to be divided and at each other's throats and blaming
18:40
Speaker 1: each other and all that kind of stuff. Oh, by
18:41
Speaker 1: the way, we have you know, largely reduced our funding
18:44
Speaker 1: to Radio for Europe and other groups like things that
18:47
Speaker 1: were our efforts to get other information to foreign publics
18:51
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So, as much as I'm not
18:54
Speaker 1: a fan of Bill POULTI I know foreign countries do
18:57
Speaker 1: attempt to influence our elections. It is a legitimate topic
18:59
Speaker 1: to talk. It is not necessarily paranoid conspiracy theories. Having
19:02
Speaker 1: said that, I will be very skeptical that the twenty
19:05
Speaker 1: twenty elections in Georgia went that way because of foreign
19:09
Speaker 1: intelligence and supposed to say the President of the United
19:11
Speaker 1: States saying the elections were rigged and was at Sydney
19:15
Speaker 1: Powell and who was the other? Yeah, you know, you
19:18
Speaker 1: know the whole thing is rigged. Well, when you tell
19:21
Speaker 1: Republicans that elections are rigged that, they're like, well, why
19:24
Speaker 1: should I show up? What does it matter? What difference
19:26
Speaker 1: does it make? In a way, you know, the disinformation
19:29
Speaker 1: was coming from inside the house. The effort to discourage
19:32
Speaker 1: Republicans was coming from inside the House. So I hope
19:35
Speaker 1: the President does not go down this line. This does
19:37
Speaker 1: not strike me as a particularly effective twenty twenty six
19:40
Speaker 1: midterm election messaging or strategy. I don't think there are
19:43
Speaker 1: a lot of Americans sitting around thinking about the twenty
19:45
Speaker 1: twenty election. Let's live in the here and now. Let's
19:48
Speaker 1: talk about things besides the ballroom and besides the reflecting pool.
19:52
Speaker 1: Let's talk about kitchen table issues for Americans. We're trying
19:54
Speaker 1: to pay for groceries, pay for gas, stuff like that,
19:56
Speaker 1: And I think I'll do a lot better in the
19:57
Speaker 1: midterms that if you say, odd, did you hear about
20:00
Speaker 1: those Macedonians.
20:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I said, let's see what he says. But
20:03
Speaker 2: I don't know if that also means Warnock's twenty twenty
20:06
Speaker 2: two election was illegitimate, because you know, that's the term
20:10
Speaker 2: he's on now. So I don't think anything's going to
20:13
Speaker 2: happen with those senators. Let me just cut to the
20:15
Speaker 2: chase on that. But nonetheless, we'll see what happens on Thursday.
20:18
Speaker 1: But Greig, if only there was some opportunity to render
20:21
Speaker 1: a judgment on ausof yes, only there was some other
20:24
Speaker 1: time he would go before the vote. Oh wait, it's happening,
20:27
Speaker 1: this very.
20:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, happening right now. So well, we'll see what happens.
20:32
Speaker 2: But in a moment, a little bit of an update
20:34
Speaker 2: on our newest US senator and the selection process, All right, Jim,
20:43
Speaker 2: Yesterday we learned that Lindsay Graham's beloved younger sister, Darlene
20:48
Speaker 2: Graham nordone, will finish out his term. So I think
20:51
Speaker 2: she's supposed to be sworn in today and she'll go
20:54
Speaker 2: till January third. Lindsay Graham was running for reelection. There
20:57
Speaker 2: will be a primary on August eleventh to see who
21:01
Speaker 2: the Republican nominee is. If nobody gets fifty percent, they'll
21:03
Speaker 2: have a runoff on August twenty fifth. So she's not
21:05
Speaker 2: serving beyond, you know, the rest of this term, just
21:09
Speaker 2: a few months to really finish out this legislative session.
21:12
Speaker 2: And so the question is, and we've certainly seen this
21:14
Speaker 2: before with family members filling seats of sudden vacancies. Usually
21:18
Speaker 2: it's a spouse rather than a sibling. But whatever, the
21:22
Speaker 2: question is, is this appropriate? You know, she hasn't been
21:24
Speaker 2: in a political figure, she hasn't been in.
21:26
Speaker 3: A ballot before.
21:27
Speaker 2: Is this nepotism or is this appropriate given the fact
21:30
Speaker 2: that she's not actually trying to win the seat again.
21:33
Speaker 2: So We've seen this with you know, Frank Murkowski was
21:35
Speaker 2: a senator from Alaska. You got elected governor appointed his daughter.
21:38
Speaker 2: She's been there ever since. Mel Carnahan was running against
21:41
Speaker 2: John Ashcraft in two thousand, died in a plane crash.
21:44
Speaker 2: The Democratic governor there said, well, I'll appoint his widow.
21:47
Speaker 2: She filled out the first two years and then lost
21:49
Speaker 2: to Jim Tallent when the seat was on the ballot again.
21:52
Speaker 2: So is this the noble thing to do or is
21:56
Speaker 2: it better for someone who actually understands and has been
21:59
Speaker 2: through the process before to do this. So is it
22:01
Speaker 2: nepotism or not?
22:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't love it. I don't like this notion
22:04
Speaker 1: of Senate seats being you know, royal titles or family
22:08
Speaker 1: heirlooms handed from one family member to another. But also
22:11
Speaker 1: because this is only for six months or two I
22:13
Speaker 1: see this as minimal harm, minimal foul. This apparently idea
22:17
Speaker 1: came from the President, and I suppose, you know, you
22:20
Speaker 1: can kind of feel out of a sense of sympathy
22:23
Speaker 1: for the Graham family. We also know that Graham's sister
22:27
Speaker 1: is probably going to vote exactly the way he would
22:29
Speaker 1: have For the next six months, we don't know very
22:31
Speaker 1: much about her. But I think if she were a
22:34
Speaker 1: you know, down the line liberal who loved her brother anyway,
22:38
Speaker 1: I don't think that would be you know, coming to
22:40
Speaker 1: this past. Henry McMaster, the South Carolina governor, said this
22:43
Speaker 1: was a good like everyone in South Carolina seems okay
22:46
Speaker 1: with it. And I think part of this reflects the
22:48
Speaker 1: fact that we're in midsummer of a midterm election year,
22:52
Speaker 1: so the Senate will not be in session for an
22:53
Speaker 1: extraordinary you know, for long stretches. They'll do some votes there,
22:57
Speaker 1: you know, might be there might be if if Democrats
22:59
Speaker 1: take control of the Senate, a rush to get things
23:01
Speaker 1: done before they transition on January third. But I think
23:05
Speaker 1: most people are like, eh, okay, we can live with.
23:07
Speaker 1: That's kind of my attitude, Like don't I don't love this,
23:09
Speaker 1: But I also know that appointments are kind of an
23:11
Speaker 1: unusual set of circumstances and she'll probably be fine, and
23:15
Speaker 1: so you know the real focus is going to be
23:17
Speaker 1: on who's going to be the replacement nominee and who's
23:19
Speaker 1: going to be serving a full six year term starting
23:22
Speaker 1: on January third of next year.
23:24
Speaker 2: No, that's true, and another thing to watch here because
23:26
Speaker 2: you never know who's going to jump into the Senate primary.
23:29
Speaker 2: There may be some sitting House members who have already
23:31
Speaker 2: won their primary jump into the Senate race. So if
23:34
Speaker 2: one of them begins the nominee, then you have to
23:35
Speaker 2: have another one to replace.
23:37
Speaker 3: The domino effect exactly, So buckle up. We'll see who
23:41
Speaker 3: emerges here in the next month or so. But anyway,
23:44
Speaker 3: Jim full.
23:45
Speaker 2: Day, see tomorrow, See tomorrow, Greg, Jim Garretty, National Review.
23:48
Speaker 2: I'm Greg Corumbus of Radio America. Thanks so much for
23:50
Speaker 2: being with us today. Please be sure to subscribe to
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