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Episode Two Hundred Eighteen: The Cover Up · The Death Of Journalism

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to episode two hundred and eighteen of the Death
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of Journalism podcast.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: My name is John Zigler. I'm your host.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: In today's show, it turns out there really was a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: cover up of Joe Biden's diminished state. Elon Musk literally
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: becomes the House Maturity Whip, the cult of Luigi Mangioni
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: continues to grow, the college football playoff is even worse
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: than I predicted. Tiger Woods and his son Charlie provide
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: some hope for the future, and I do my annual
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Christmas time interview with my now sixth grade daughter Grace
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: about the only prediction about the post election environment that
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was easier than predicting that Joe Biden would pardon his
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: son Hunter, which I and many other people made and
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: which turned out to be true, was that there would
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: be all sorts of stories after the election in the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: mainstream news media about the cover up of Joe Biden's
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: mental decline.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: And that has.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Happened over the last few days, although my guess is
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: not that many Americans are even aware that had happened.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Their story I'm referring to first appeared in the Wall
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Street Journal. It included all sorts of different sources, including
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: democratic and White House sources, but it did not lead
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the White House Press Corps to ask even one question
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: about it a Press secretary Kareem John Pierre, which you know,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: is maybe the greatest indication of the death of journalism
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: that has happened, certainly in the last week, maybe the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: last month or two. And that's saying something because there's
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: almost on a daily basis examples of the death of journalism,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: but this one is.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Right up there.
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  Speaker 1: Now in a rational world, I would be devoting at
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: least half hour, forty five minutes to this subject. But
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: it's so obvious that it was happening when it did,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: we covered it as it did. And you know, obviously,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: once Biden was forced to get out of the raids
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: thanks to the code red being put on him by
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi, it became evident to everybody that the cover
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: up had been blown.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: But just for the.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Record, even though this is the least surprising story ever,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and by the way, the fact that it's the least
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: surprising story ever is transparently really an incredible indication of
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: how broken everything in our politics is, and not just
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: the news media, but you know, the New York Post
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: picked up on the Wall Street Journals report. Of course,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the Wall Street Journal and Near Post owned by the
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: same company, News Corp. They started their headlines and their
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: coverage of this story with White House aides hid Biden's
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: apparent mental decline from day one of his presidency. Explosive
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: report reveals, and I think maybe the most interesting and
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: maybe the most telling part of how this cover up happened,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: and it's really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: this out, And although I should have mentioned it more
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: as it was happening, is that the narrative here really
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: does begin with the fact that Biden took over when
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: we were still in the midst of the COVID panic,
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and the COVID panic.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Really allowed for all.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: Sorts of plausible deniability when it came to the cover
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: up of Joe Biden's mental decline. And not only did
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: it provide plausible deniability with regard to not engaging in
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: events and meetings and doing things that normal presidents would do,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: but also it changed the rules. It changed our expectations.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: We became very desensitized to this idea that we wouldn't
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: see the president nearly as often and that they would
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: have limited events because that was the COVID panic world.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: And so when it didn't change once the COVID panic
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: was officially finally done with, I don't think people noticed
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: as much, and certainly the press they had become used to, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is the new normal. Well it was only the
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: new normal because Joe Biden wasn't up to the job mentally.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And there have been other stories that have come out
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  Speaker 1: that were either based on the Wall Street Journal report
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: or played off of the Wall Street Journal report, including
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: another headline from The New York Post mentally.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: Fatigued Biden skipped call.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: From concern Paul politician before disastrous Afghanistan pull out. That
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: was another element of the real world impact of Joe
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Biden not being mentally fit for office. Then there's this
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: from a News Corp affiliate, Daily Mail. Biden made military
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: families of troops killed in Afghanistan wait three hours while
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: he napped on Air Force one on the tar according
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: to the Daily Mail. According to family members who spoke
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: to the Daily Mail, Biden couldn't pull it together. Unquote,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Biden made us wait an extra three hours to receive
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the bodies of our deceased family members because he couldn't
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: pull it together, said the sister of Riley McCollum.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I guess the most upsetting.
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  Speaker 1: Part of this whole story is how unsurprising it is.
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  Speaker 1: Anybody with a brain, a functioning brain, fully functioning, unlike
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: the President of United States, understood that this was the
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: type of stuff that was clearly going on, But we
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: didn't hear about it in the mainstream press because there
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: was a cover up, a cover up by those around
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden, by the Democratic Party, by the White House
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Press Secretary, and obviously by the White House Press Corps
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and by the liberal mainstream news media. I mean, there's
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: all sorts of now infamous clips, most notoriously among them
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Joe Scarborough claiming on MSNBC that this Joe Biden was
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the best Joe Biden has ever been, not that long
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: before he was forced out of the presidential race. And
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I guess it goes without saying it's so unbelievably obvious.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: But the biggest question here is not only how in
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the world did this not become accepted fact and the
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: White House Press Corps and the media in general keep
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: it from being reported in a proper fashion, but how
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: did this guy get handed the twenty twenty four Democratic
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: presidential nomination.
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  Speaker 2: That's the most amazing part of this.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody around the president, nobody in the Democratic Party had
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: the balls to say to anybody that mattered, Hey, you know,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: maybe this isn't a good idea for Joe Biden to
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: be the Democratic presidential nominee.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: One because he might not be able to pull it off.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: But two, how the hell is he going to serve
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: an office for another four years now? I said numerous times,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: numerous times during this period that the plan was always
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: for Biden to win reelection against what was going to
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: be perceived as a very damaged Donald Trump. See the
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: thinking here was always, well, Trump can't win one, he's
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: too unpopular, he's too toxic post January sixth, and then
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: we indict him, you know, in all these different legal situations,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: and we actually get a conviction, he's toast.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Well that was a very very very flawed premise, but
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: that was the premise.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: If we elevate Donald Trump, he's the nominee. Even a
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: diminished Joe Biden can beat him again. He beat him once,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: he can beat him again, and then we get him elected,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: and then he resigns from office, and we have Kamala
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Harris as an incumbent in twenty twenty eight. That was
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: always my fear, that was always my expectation, but it
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: was based from the democratic perspective, and clearly those who
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: are making these decisions a very flawed premise was the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: basis there. The flawed premise was Donald Trump is easily beaten.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Now we will never know how easily beaten Donald Trump
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: might have been had there been a legitimate candidate, had
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden not be mentally diminished, had he not been
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: forced out of the race, had Kamala Harris not been
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: handed denomination, and had she not been such a terrible candidate.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: We'll never going to know that. I don't know that I.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Trump obviously did better than I expected that he would
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: in the popular vote. And you know, while he didn't
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: win a ginormous victory that he's claiming, he won a
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: very very strong.
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  Speaker 2: Victory, very strong.
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  Speaker 1: I wouldn't call it a mandate as he keeps calling it,
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  Speaker 1: but clearly way better than expected, Clearly a decisive victory. Yes,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: in three states if they had gone the other way,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: all which were very close, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Harris
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: wins the presidency by the exact same margin that I
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: had predicted just before the election that she would in
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: a historically close election. But that did not happen, and
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: we'll never know would that have happened had this process
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: not played out the way that it did.
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  Speaker 2: But going back to the primary.
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  Speaker 1: Point here is that nobody put the country above their
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  Speaker 1: own self interest. Nobody put their party above their own
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  Speaker 1: self interest. Because nobody around Joe Biden was willing to
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  Speaker 1: have the balls to say, mister President, at the very least,
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  Speaker 1: you cannot run for reelection and we have to go
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: through a primary process here, otherwise you're going to put
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: us in a very very precarious situation. Nobody did that,
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  Speaker 1: even though it was obvious as it could possibly be,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: and this latest reporting in the Wall Street Journal makes
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: that abundant clear.
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  Speaker 2: So they basically got what they deserve the Democrats did.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody had the guts to stop this, this inevitable train
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  Speaker 1: wreck from happening, and it happened right in front of everybody,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: and it left them incredibly vulnerable to Donald Trump winning.
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  Speaker 1: And that's exactly what happened. But this issue of our
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: politicians being way too old has gotten yet another data
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: point that is quite astonishing, and this is not just anecdotal.
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  Speaker 2: The stats backed this up.
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  Speaker 1: The number of elected officials in Washington who are over
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: the age of seventy has exploded in the last decade
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: or so. But this story is bonkers even by that standard,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: even by the idea that Nancy Pelosi, the age of
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: eighty four, is calling for code reds on her own
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  Speaker 1: presidential candidate at the president of United States who's eighty
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  Speaker 1: one years old. But there's a Texas congresswoman by the
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: name of Kay Granger, a Republican who's eighty one years old,
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  Speaker 1: who somehow it has escaped public notice that she's effectively,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: not totally, not literally, but effectively been missing from her
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  Speaker 1: job in Congress for the last six months. She hasn't
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: cast a vote in the last half of this year.
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  Speaker 1: She's been made almost no public appearances.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Now she's or at least her.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Office is trying to tamp down some of these stories
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that are now out there that she's completely out of it,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: that she's in a nursing home for dementia patients, but
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: clearly she's not up for the job. She did not
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: run for reelection unlike Joe Biden, but she is still
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: technically a sit in congress person in an era where
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: the House Representatives is as close as it can possibly
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: get between control for Republicans in control for Democrats, and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: here this Republican congresswoman has been a wall now for
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: basically half the year, and until a reporter started to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: ask finally, some questions about this, no one even seemed
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  Speaker 1: to notice.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I can't.
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  Speaker 1: I find that impossible to believe, because these votes are
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: incredibly close and very important, although we don't have very
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: many votes leading up to an election, and we've had
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: obviously that's become more of a focus post election because
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: of all the things that have happened, including the debt
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: sealing situation, which I'll get to momentarily. But it's just
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: impossible for me to believe. It's not like we have
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: thousands of people in House Representatives. There's a small enough
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: number that you would think everyone would be aware, especially
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: in a very close environment, that somebody was missing.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: But a fellow.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Republican from Texas by the name of Tony Gonzalez went
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: on Faced the Nation on CBS with Margaret Brennan and.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Was asked about this situation and.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Didn't really come up with any good answers to what
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: really was going on here, and instead basically tried to
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: cast blame on everybody else for mentioning Dianne Feinstein and
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: how old everybody is in the halls of vote the
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: House of Representatives in the US Senate. But here was
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: a Republican congresswoman from Texas, same delegation as Kay Granger.
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  Speaker 2: On face the nation, same party.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: As Kay Granger on face the nation, talking about this
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: particular issue.
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  Speaker 3: Congresswoman Kay Granger hasn't cast a vote since July. And
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: there was our local reporter in Dallas who looked into
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: this and found the eighty one year old has been
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: living in a local memory care and assisted living facility
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: for some time that was not shared with the public.
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  Speaker 3: Were you and others in the Texas delegation aware?
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  Speaker 4: I wasn't aware. I think there's no doubt a lot
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: of us knew that she was gaining an age, like
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: a lot of members do. And sadly, you know, some
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: of these members wait until it's too long to to
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: things have gone.
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  Speaker 3: Too far, and leadership allowed for it.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: I think it's maybe I'm not too sure what leadership
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: knew on it or didn't know on it. I'd say
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: on the other side of the aisle, it was the
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: same thing. I mean, we saw what happened on the
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: Senate side, you know, with Senator Feinstein and some of
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: these others that have missed votes for a long time.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: I think this goes gets back to the root of it.
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: Congress should do its job, and if you can't do
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: your job, maybe you shouldn't be there.
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  Speaker 3: Well, she wasn't there, and apparently it went either unnoticed
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: or just not acknowledged to the public, which certainly raises eyebrows.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's just bonkers, absolutely block.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I don't even understand how this is possible, and part
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: of me doesn't believe that that's really the story here,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: But this is an indication. Yes, I've never been a
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: huge term limits person because I'm a libertarian. I think
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: that if you know, a particular congressional district really likes
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: their congress person, or a state likes their senator, they
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: have the ability to keep electing them. Now, it gets
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: a little hazier in the US Senate because it's six
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: year terms and you know, somebody at the age of
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: seventy eight as we've seen with Joe Biden can be very,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: very different than they are at the age of eighty four.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: And we've also seen that people are incredibly hesitant, especially
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: when they have aids around them whose jobs depend on
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: them being in their position, are incredibly hesitant to resign.
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we I don't know if it's
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: still the case. I guess it still is.
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: But in Great Britain there's a culture of resignation. Whether
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: it's you know, you get caught in a scandal, or
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: you lose an election that you should have won, or
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: if you're too old, there's a culture that you resign,
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: and if you don't, there's kind of a shame in that. Well,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: we don't have apparently any shame in the United States
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: of America anymore. Nobody ever resigns. Hey, I just can't
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: do it anymore because there's too many people around them
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: who are deeply invested in them keeping this position.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: The perks of the job are too great.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Nobody wants to go from being an eighty year old
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: congress person or senator where they're having their butts kissed
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: every day and they're important to all of a sudden
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: being totally irrelevant and on a path to certain death
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: in short order. Nobody wants that, so I guess even
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: I am now starting to believe maybe we just need
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: to put some sort of term limits on this because
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: human beings are not capable of handling the situation on
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: our own. The incentive structure is tuber verse and too
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: difficult to overcome. And I don't know how you do that,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: you know, whether it's an age thing or the number
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: of terms age would probably make more sense, that would actually,
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: you know, give maybe people more of an incentive to
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: get into this earlier in life. I don't know, but
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the Biden situation and the Granger situation clearly have put
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: a focus rightfully on this idea that we have too
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: many people that are just too damn old and something.
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  Speaker 2: Has got to be done about it.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Now, as far as the House of Representatives is concerned,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: there's been a lot of focus on the House in
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: the last few days, and that may have been partially
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: why the K Granger story finally came to light, because
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: there's been yet another battle over the debt ceiling and
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: keeping the government funded. And I rarely ever talk about
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: this topic because I hate it. I hate this topic
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: about as much as any because it's the same story
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: over and over and over again. It's a lot like
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: you know, Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown in
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: the Halloween and Thanksgiving Charlie Brown specials, where you know,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: she pulls the ball from Charlie Brown right before he's
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: about to kick it, and it's the same story over
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: and over and over again. That you know, the Lucy
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Charlie Brown metaphor is pretty good, but I actually think
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: it's maybe a better explanation for what really transpires in
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: these debates over the debt ceiling that it's a lot
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: like Republicans in this debate are a lot like men
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: getting in fights with their wives. Not physical fights, but
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: you know, arguments with their wives. This is something I
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: know a lot about, having been married for an extended
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: period of time. And you know, because basically what the
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: situation is, Republicans always get into these battles thinking that
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: they have some sort of an upper hand. In this
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: particular case, they have a majority barely in House of Representatives,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: so in theory they have some sort of an advantage there,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: even though currently obviously Democrats control the Senate and the
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: White House, so they don't have much of an advantage,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: but at least in the House, they have a small advantage,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and they think that they have the better argument, the
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: better argument being that we got to cut some of
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: this insane, wasteful spending. So they think they have enough
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: power or leverage, and they think they have the right argument,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: so they get involved in this conflict Republicans do with
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: their wives, the Democrats, and inevitably, inevitably, it always turns
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: out exactly the same way, just as an argument usually
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: does with your wife. It doesn't matter if you have
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: the better argument, if the facts are on your side,
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: even if you have a little bit more leverage or
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: you think you do in a particular situation, you are
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: almost always going to lose that argument. Why because she's
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the wife, and the dynamics inherently advantage her, just like
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: in this situation, the dynamics inherently advantage Democrats because you
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: can't have a government shut down just before Christmas, and
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: oh my gosh, people are gonna be in terrible situations,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: and you know, people are gonna suffer, and you know,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: cancer patients are gonna lose funding and whatever it is,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: whatever sob story, real or imagined that could happen because
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: of this transpiring erodes the leverage of the Republicans every
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: single time, and you're gonna get Republicans who will become weak.
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: Need or in the reversal.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: You know, and Trump has made this equation even more
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: complicated because you know, Trump often is the liberal in
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: these kind of situations. He actually doesn't think there should
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: be a debt ceiling at all, which had him bizarrely
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: on the same side as Elizabeth Warren for several hours
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: during this entire saga, which is to me, not a
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: good sign.
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: And then you have.
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: The the few principal Republicans actually do care about some
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: sort of fiscal sanity. They're in the minority, and then
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: they get attacked. And so to me, when you have
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: an incredibly small majority, and while your argument might be
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: sound logically, it's not the emotional argument, and the emotional
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: argument is gonna win. In this day and age, Almost
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: every single time, this whole battle seems so pointless, and
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: it ends up in a remarkably similar fashion nearly every
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: single time.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: The only difference in this particular version of this story
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: is that we now have Elon Musk effectively acting as
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the Republican House majority whip, and that is not an exaggeration.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: The House majority whip is supposed to be the person
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: that counts the votes, who gets people who are on
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the fence to come onto the side of, you know,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: whatever the party or the speaker wants them.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: To be on.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Well, it looked as if there was a deal at
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: one point, and then Elon Musk tweeted that he was
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: against the deal and that there should be targeting of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: Republican Congress people.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: Who were not on board.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: And then a few Republicans who had been on board
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: with the deal bailed on it, and the deal fell
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: apart and collapse, and you know, then, of course Musk's
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: side celebrated the victory of the people, the will of
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: the people, and then Democrats had a meltdown over the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: fact that Elon Musk is effectively the co president. I
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: don't think that's the right terminology. I think the House
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: majority whip is probably the better way to look at
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: it in this particular situation.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: But certainly there is some ambiguity that is ominous.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: If you're somebody like me who thinks that the Trump
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Must relationship is inevitably eventually doomed because of the circumstances
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: and the egos involved. But you know, that's certainly the
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: narrative that the Left wants to paint for a couple
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of different reasons. One, I do think they are trying
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: to divide Trump and Musk because they know if that
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: relationship collapses that the Trump presidency will be in much
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: worse shape than it would be if Musk and Trump
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: stayed on the same team. But it is absolutely bizarre
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: to have Elon Musk acting as the House majority whip
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: on Twitter. What I can't figure out is how coordinated
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: all of this is. Is Must doing this on his own?
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: Is Must doing this in conjunction and coordination with Donald Trump?
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: And those are important questions because if Musk is doing
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: this on his own, and you know, Trump isn't president yet,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: so I think that Must can have a little bit
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: more leeway now. But once Trump is president, And all
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: they ended up doing here was kicking this can down
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the road a couple of months until Trump actually is president.
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: So in the end, Must didn't win here.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: In the end, like it happens with every argument with
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: your wife, in the end, the wife always wins to
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: some degree. It's almost a pointless bat unless you have
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: unique levels of leverage and you're really willing to take
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: it to the mat, the wife is going to win.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: And that's what happened here.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Democrats ended up getting what they wanted when ended up
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: passing passed with majority Democrat votes, because what.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: They looked at it as I.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Think, is well, all right, well we didn't really lose here,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: but what we basically did was we caused this headache
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: to be revisited in just a few months when Donald
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Trump is president and he takes full responsibility. Now, I
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: think Republicans rationalize that, Okay, in a few months, we
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: have more votes, we control the Senate, and we have
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: the presidency, so maybe we'll have a little bit more
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: leverage to go do this same dance again. So I
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: think both sides rationalized that they won. Republicans probably didn't
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: vote for this who had principle because they didn't like
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the idea behind this whole thing philosophically, and so they
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: got a free vote. And all that ended up happening
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: was this thing was passed off until I believe March, well,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: this is not what you want if you're the Trump
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: presidency to have to deal with this one more time,
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: at least one more time, probably multiple times. But you know,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: right after your inauguration, you're gonna get right back into
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: a government shutdown debate.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: How is that a positive thing?
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: But I am concerned about this role of Elon Musk,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: and I generally like Elon Musk, I'm conflicted about him.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: I've talked about this many many times before. I mean, look,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: I like Elon Musk. He's done a lot of great things.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Him taking over Twitter was huge from a free speech
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: perspective and probably from the standpoint of who was going
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: to win this presidential election. I think he was the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: MVP without question of Trump's general election campaign.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot to like about Elon Musk, but I.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: Don't like the idea that he's not in an official position,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: at least when it comes to being the House majority whip.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: So it's it's ambiguous as to Okay, what is he
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: doing for whom is he acting? Is he acting for
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Elon Musk, is he acting for Donald Trump? What's the
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: what's the hierarchy here? What are the rules? And so
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: this is this is troubling stuff. The left, of course,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: is enraged by all this. They're they're having meltdowns, many
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: which are hypocritical because you know the idea that somehow,
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: now here we are. And I don't think it's a
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: perfect analogy, but I think it's a relevant one. That
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: we've just gotten through a presidency where other people were
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: clearly really in control at times and we don't even
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: know who they were, and here Democrats are complaining about
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: the idea that Elon Musk has so much influence over
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: the Republican Party and Donald Trump. I do think that
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: there's an interesting and important point to be made there.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: But I got to play this clip from ABC's The
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: View where Joy Behart and Whoopee Goldberg are all in
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: a tizzy over this whole Elon Musk situation, and they
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: theorize somewhat hilariously that Musk and JD Vance may be
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: secretly trying to oust Donald Trump, and Boopy Goldberg even
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: makes a joke about how Trump may end up having
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: an accident and end up not no longer being able
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: to serve in office, so that Musk and jd Vance
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: can actually take over. This doesn't even make a lot
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: of sense, but I do think it's an interesting tell
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: into the left's reaction to Elon Musk and how much
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: they've lost their minds.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: And here's what that sounded like on a he sees
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: the view who is in charge? Because I've been saying
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: it for a while.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: I've been saying that I.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: Think Elon must believes he's president. I do.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: I called I called him vice president, I called him
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: president because I don't know.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: What JD is doing. I hardly ever said I don't.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: I don't remember last time we even talked about JD. Right,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: he's planning the presidency when he got to get rid
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: of Trump. So you think it's Musk, it must Advance.
• 28:32
  Speaker 5: Hey, you know who stay away from the stairways.
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: You know people put the leg out to tripping bowed
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: down the stairs.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Watch out now, Well, they've clearly lost their minds.
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: And it's I think intended as a joke.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: You know, There's there's something to be said for the
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: idea that Elon Musk and JD Vance being in complete control,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the brain power there would be enhanced tremendously compared to
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: what it's currently going to be with Donald Trump as
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: the President of the United States. But the real point
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: there is that the view has completely lost their minds.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: If they ever had it, And that's just a further
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: indication of it.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: I've talked before about how Trump's.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: Term hasn't even started, the second term, and he's already
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: getting incredibly distracted by all sorts of I guess in
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: his mind, shiny objects.
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: You know. Now, over the last few.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Days, we're taking over Greenland, We're taking back the Pike,
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: taking back the Panama Canal. We may have a soft
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: invasion of Mexico. We're renaming Mount McKinley Mount McKinley again.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: What the hell is going on here?
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, Trump seems to think that he's gonna have
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: a ten year second term or something. These things take
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: time and effort. As I've already said, one of the
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: first things he's gonna have to deal with is another
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: threat of a government shutdown, you know, just early a
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: month over having taken office. I am very skeptical as
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: to how much of this agenda is really ever going
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: to get done, or even theorically could get done by
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: a one term lane duck president.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: But and I do think all.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: Of this is creating expectations that are not going to
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: be able to be reached. I mean, expectations are everything
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: in life and in my view, the expectations here, the
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: number of agenda items that Trump is laid out is.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: Far too broad, far too wide, far too.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Optimistic, and inevitably is going to set people up for disappointment.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Of course, since it's Trump, his cult will never really
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: be disappointed, because you know, they'll either forget about these promises,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: or they'll blame the deep state, or you know, wimpy
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: Republicans in Congress weren't able to give Trump what he wanted.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: There's all sorts of ways to rationalize it, but you know,
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: it is what it is now. I've mentioned many times
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: that there's one voice of reason remaining in the US
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: Senate on the Democratic side, and bizarrely, it's John Fetterman,
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: the Democratic Senator from Pennsylvania. And I'm not exaggerated. I
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: mean John Fetterman's evolution, especially over the last year year
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: and a half, has been probably one of the most
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: underrated political stories in twenty twenty four, considering the fact
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: that he was elected at twenty twenty two in an
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: election where he almost literally could not speak, and he
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: was derided universally by Republicans and Trump fans and conservatives
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and people like myself and once he has mostly recovered
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: from his medical condition. My goodness, gracious, he is by
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: far the most rational Democrat left in the US Senate.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: He proved that again in an interview with ABC where
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: he defended Democrats who voted for Donald Trump and praised
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump for his political acumen.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: And here's what that sounded like.
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: And after you survived an assassination, you literally were shot
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: in your head and had the presence of mind to respond,
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: you know, fight, fight, fight, I mean, that's a political talent,
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: it's undeniable. And also I never believed that it was
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: about fascism, and for me, that made it difficult.
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: For kil Harris said that he was a fascist.
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: Ye, well, it's like that's her prerogative. I mean, but
• 32:27
  Speaker 5: it's not a word that I would use because you
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: put a lot of Democrats, especially in my state that
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: I know, and I happen to love people that are
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: going to vote for Trump and they are not fascists.
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: And also fascism, that's not a word that regular people,
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: you know, use that. You know, I think people are
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: going to decide who is the candidate that's going to
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: protect and project, you know, my version of the American
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: way of life.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: And that's what happened once again. The political evolution of
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: John Fetterman has to be one of the most amazing
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: political stories and most underrated political stories of twenty twenty
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: four and beyond. A couple of other notes in the
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: political realm. I've talked several times before about Trump's effort
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to try to get Laura Trump to be the next
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: senator from Florida to replace Marc or Rubio who's going
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: to be the Secretary of State, and how this put
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: Ronda Santis in a very uncomfortable position. Well, it appears
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: as if Ronda Santis has held his ground. Not a
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: huge surprise if you understand who Ronda Santis is, but
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: good for him. I was a little concerned he might
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: get weak need. But Laura Trump announced clearly, after being
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: given an indication she wasn't going to get the gig
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: that she no longer was interested in, was removing her
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: name from consideration to be the next senator from Florida.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: This is a great decision by Ronda Santis. What I
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: don't know is how much did Trump really want this
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to happen? Was he doing Lawlaura Trump and his son,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: her husband, his least favorite son Eric a solid by
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: just making.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: It seem like he wanted her to have the gig.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: And have it be leaked to the press that he
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: spoke to the Santus about it.
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: So it's kind of.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: A an ego move and it gives it gives her
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: some elevation that she was even being considered to be
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the next senator from Florida. Is that the scenario, because
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I kind of think that's what happened. I would like
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: to believe that this was really not a situation where
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Trump pressed the Santa's hard on this that hey, you know,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: if you feel like it, give her the gig, it
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: would be great, but don't worry about it if you can.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: I mean that that's what I would like to believe
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: really hampered here and so that she was able to
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: play it out publicly where she was really a legitimate
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: candidate for this. So if that's the case, that would
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: make make me feel better about Trump, and it would
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: also indicate that DeSantis isn't going to have any kind
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: of negative consequences.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: For not picking Laura Trump.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: There's also the scenario where Trump really really did want
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: this to happen and DeSantis decided, no, we're not doing this,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: not on my watch, in which case, even you know,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: more kudos to Ron DeSantis for not allowing this to
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: devolve into a monarchy. A monarchy, I mean, that's basically
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: what we're talking about here, is a monarchy if an
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: unqualified daughter in law of Donald Trump can be named
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: to what could be a lifelong position, given her age
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: and the political situation in Florida. Once you become the
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: Republican incumbent senator in Florida, it certainly looks like you're
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: going to keep that job for a very very very
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: long time, barring some sort of catastrophe. But thankfully, thanks
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: to Ronda Santis, that's not going to happen. I don't
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: know who will be the placement yet for Marko Rubia,
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: but I'm sure we'll find out soon.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: It will not be Laura Trump. Now, speaking of.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: Florida politics, Matt Gates is back in the news because
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: the much talked about ethics report against him has effectively
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: been leaked. He is suing to try to keep it
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: from becoming officially public, but it seems like that horse
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: has already left the barn.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: You know, the report, I've not been.
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: Able to because it happened is before I started taping
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: this to look deeply into it. But the allegations are
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: has have been rumored that Gates, first of all, engaged
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: in all sorts of drug use and the apparent payment
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: for sex with multiple women, including a seventeen year old
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: effectively girl. Again, I don't know for sure how much
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: of this is true. It all looks terrible. I would
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: say that Gates's worst explanation in all this is somehow
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: that the venmoing of money multiple times to women with
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: whom he was having sex is not an indication that
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: he was engaging in prostitution.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, you.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Know, look, I get that it's possible to have a
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: sexual relationship with a woman and also give her money
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: and it not be quid pro quo direct prostitution. I mean,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: because you know, the definitions of prostitution would be would
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: be difficult to pin down under those circumstances, because in
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: the world in which we live, almost that he thing
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: could be considered prostitution. But the Venmo part of this,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: and the way that the Venmo payments were made certainly
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: look like a way of getting around, you know, the
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: idea that you could be proven to have engaged in prostitution.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: So I'm not buying Matt Gatez's explanation here.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: It does look terrible. I mean, it's the smoke here.
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Is is all over the place, and certainly this is
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: not the background of somebody who should be the Attorney
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: General of the United States of America. I don't even
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: think they should be in Congress. I've said before, Matt
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: gets is an asshole. He's an asshole, and I'm now
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: starting to believe that, you know what, maybe a lot
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: of this, not all of it, but maybe the lot
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: of this whole attorney general thing and him resigning from
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Congress was indeed all some sort of a plan, some
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: sort of a setup.
• 38:35
  Speaker 2: I don't think we're ever going to know for sure,
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: but the.
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: Idea that he gave up his seat in Congress and
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: is now going to be a host on the One
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: America News network, I mean, that is just too far
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: a fall from grace, and in too short a period
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: of time, when for a few days everyone was pretending
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: he was going to be the next Attorney General of
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: the United States. You know, in Trump world, it's often
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: differentt called to discern what's real, what's fantasy, what's planned.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: What's accidental, but I got to believe that this was
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: at least partially planned by somebody, and because there's just
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: no way, there was just no way he was ever
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: going to be the Attorney General. Even without the ethics report,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: I don't think he would have been. But this ethics report,
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: which clearly would have been made public in the biggest
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: way possible had there been confirmation hearings for Matt Gates
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: to be the Attorney General the United States, is really
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: very very troubling for anybody in politics, but specifically if
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: you're going to be the next Attorney General of the
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: United States. I want to talk a little bit about
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: two defamation cases very quickly that one of which I've
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: referred to previously, in another that has just happened that
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I think shows why I have a somewhat controversial opinion on,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: for instance, the ABC George Devannopolis defamation situation, where ABC
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: ended up settling for basically fifteen million dollars to Donald
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Trump's presidential library over the idea that George de Monopolis
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: referenced multiple times that Donald Trump had been found liable
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: for rape in the e Gen Carroll story, which was
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: not technically true. Although it's a little bit more complicated
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: than Trump fans would like you to believe in. Certainly
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump would like you to believe. I have been
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: critical of ABC and the corporate executives at ABC for
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: engaging in this settlement.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: I think they did a very stupid thing.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: I think they harmed journalism and free speech and freedom
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: of the press. I've also been very critical of George
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Stephanopolis because what he said was stupid, it was wrong,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: it was inaccurate, and in a rational world I know
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: we don't live in that anymore, should have resulted in
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: an apology and a clear correction, and then we would
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: have moved on. That's how this situation should have been handle.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: But Trump is very re litigious, and you know he
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: won this one, no question about it. He won this
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: because the ABC executives cried uncle for a variety of reasons.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: One of the reasons they might.
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Have cried uncle is that the Washington Post is reporting
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, not the Washington Post. See I just defamed
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: the Washington Post. I hope they don't sue me. No,
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: I made what has called a mistake the New York Post.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Big difference there. The New York Post although there's the
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: reason why Washington Post was on my mind, which will
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: become a parent in a second here. But the New
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: York Post reported headline ABC's George Stephanoppolis was repeatedly warned
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: not to use word rape by producer, but said it anyway,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: this according to sources within ABC News. Now, if that's
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the case, and the fact that The New York Post
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: knows about this, obviously Trump's lawyers would have figured this
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: out and that would have been much more problematic in
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: a defamation lawsuit against George de Monopolis and ABC News.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: That doesn't change my opinion about ABC doing the dumb
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: wrong thing by not fighting this, but.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: It does if true.
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: It does certainly one make it a little bit more
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: understandable as to why ABC did this, and also puts
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: more blame on George that Monopolis specifically for what he did,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: and brings into question why he did it. Now, why
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: did I have the Washington Post on the mind? Because
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: the New York Post, while it's often very good, is
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: not infallible here at all because they just got apparently
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: duped into doing a story on Jeff Bezos having a
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: six hundred million dollar wedding coming up six hundred million
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: dollar wedding that appears to be the report appears to
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: be totally wrong because Bezos himself, in multiple platin forms,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: has declaratively said, this isn't true, none of this is true,
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: none of this is happening now. First of all, the
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: six hundred million dollar wedding figure was inherently absurd. Anybody
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: with half a brain knows that even with inflation the
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: way that it is, and even among the super rich
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: being willing and able to spend on godly amounts of money,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: there is no possible way to spend six hundred million
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: dollars on a wedding. It's just not possible. So the
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: report was inherently ridiculous. But apparently it was also completely
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: factually wrong, to the point where Bezos, the owner of
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: the Washington Post that's the post being on my mind,
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: the Washington Post being on my mind, actually publicly stated,
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: don't believe everything you read. We're living in crazy times
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: when it comes to the news media in journalism, when
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: the owner of the Washington Post is forced to publicly state,
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: don't believe everything you read, and I believe it because
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: obviously there's no way around this. If you're really going
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: to have a six hundred million dollar wedding or anything
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: close to it, You're going to be found very in
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: very short order to have been a blatant liar. And
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: I don't think Bezos is that stupid. So I believe
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: that that story is false. So I'm not undred pcent
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: sure about the George Devenopolis story, although it's certainly plausibly true.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: But here's the other defamation case that I want to
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: reference because I think it really does expose why, at
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: least I think I'm right when it comes to what
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: ABC did regarding George Debnopolis and Donald Trump being a mistake. See,
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: I think the definition of defamation when it comes to
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: media outlets has to be clear, and it has to
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: be profound. There has to be no ambiguity and say,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: I think this is the part of this whole situation
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: where a lot of people, for instance, on Twitter who
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: are Trump, think I'm out of my mind because I'm
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: seen as somehow defending ABC or George Stephanopolis.
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: I'm not.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: I have gone on News Nation, I've criticized ABC, I've
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: criticized George Stephanopolis. You know, I think that what they
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: did was wrong but I don't think it was actionable,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: and I don't think an incoming president of the United
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: States should have been suing them, especially when he won
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: the election, and therefore there's no damage done. Part of
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: what you have to prove here is damages. Well, Trump
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: won the elections. I don't know what the damages are
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: here from what step Monopolis did, and that, to me
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: is maybe the strongest legal argument for why ABC should
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: not have caved and settled. But here's where I'm headed
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: with this. So there's a newspaper in Massachusetts, was a
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: small newspaper called The Leader Herald that has been in
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: existence for one hundred and thirty nine years years, one
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty nine years. They just folded after one
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty nine years. Why because they lost a
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: defamation case to the mayor of a local town within
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: their jurisdiction. Now you might think, well, Ozigo, okay, well
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: are you in favor of what just happened there? These
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: defamation cases, this case, this defamation case just ended one.
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: Hundred and thirty nine year old journalistic institution.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, except when you find out what the details were
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: the details of this case are unbelievable, even by you know,
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: someone like myself who's incredibly cynical about the nature of
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: the news media. The newspaper admitted to knowingly publishing falsehoods
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: and fabricated quotes and interview notes during the mayor's successful
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one reelection campaign. Court filings show, in other words,
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: this was a systematic conspiracy by those at the top
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: of the newspaper to blatantly and knowingly lie about a
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: mayoral candidate that they didn't like.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: And it was all proven.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: That's the definition of an actionable defamation libel case. And
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: the newspaper lost they I think it was over a
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: million dollars. What was the judgment against them, and so
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: they were forced to fold. You know what, that's a
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: situation where the death penalty was absolutely warranted. I don't
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: care how many years you've been around, one hundred and
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: thirty nine years, it doesn't matter.
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: That's death penalty worthy.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: And they got the death penalty because of a defamation case,
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: a libel case, And so that's where the system worked.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: But that's nowhere near happened in the ABC Donald Trump's situation. So,
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: in my view, in order for free speech to be
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: protected and freedom of the press to be protected, these
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: situations have to be very clear, and intent has to
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: be very obvious, and the proof has to be abundant, and.
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: All of those were in this particular case in.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: Spades, so that that's defamation. That in a world where
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: the first amend matters, that's perfectly fine. In fact, that's
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: the system working. I don't think the system worked at
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: all with regard to ABC, and I don't think Donald Trump,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: as the incoming president, should have even pursued the case.
• 48:45
  Speaker 2: But Donald Trump lives in a different world.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump is very litigious and he's very vengeful, and
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: his supporters are thrilled that he did so, even though
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: I do think they're going to be profound implications for
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: the news into the future. Now speaking of the death
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: penalty instead of the figurative death penalty, although I guess
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: this is a literal death for that newspaper after one
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty nine years, but the literal death penalty
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: is in the news this morning because President Joe Biden
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: or somebody around him. We never know for sure now,
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: and this is one of the biggest questions surrounding his presidency.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Is he really making these decisions as somebody else. And
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: if it's somebody else, who is it that's making these decisions.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: But President Joe Biden commuted the death sentences of thirty
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: seven out of forty of the current federal death row inmates. Now,
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: to me, this is amazing that Biden is going to
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: get away with this and the Democratic Party is going
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: to get away with this, because the principle allegedly here
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: is that Biden is against the death penalty and the
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: for he's making a principled move to essentially take away
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's ability to enforce the death penalty in federal cases.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: So if you have forty on death row on federal
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: cases where the president has the power to pardon or
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: commute sentences, then in theory, if you're philosophically against the
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: death penalty. Now I'm in favor of the death penalty,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: but only if it's used properly, and unfortunately we don't
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: have the balls to use it properly anymore. So you know,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: the death penity doesn't matter that much to me anymore.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, it used to back when we did it correctly,
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: like Texas used to do, it was a real deterrent
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: because you committed a crime you're convicted, you got your appeals,
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: so that was all done in pretty short order. And
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: then if you were still guilty, you were put to death,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: and so you weren't going to linger very long. And
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: you also, most importantly, weren't going to have your life
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: improved by being on death row. And we've seen numerous situations,
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: especially on the state level, where your life.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: Is much better, much better. We've seen my wife and.
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: I've seen date lines in twenty twenties and forty eight
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: hours where some situations, people have committed a heinous crimes
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: actually want to be on death row because life is better.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: I assume it's probably the case when it comes to
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: a federal death row offense. But regardless, your life is
• 51:28
  Speaker 1: better if only not just from your day to day perspective,
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: but only because you are still paid attention to, because
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: there's still something left to be done in your life, something.
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: Left to be adjudicated.
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: There's drama, you know, once if you ever get to
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: the point where you're actually going to be put to death,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: your death becomes not only a big story, but there
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: will be people who will support you and defend you
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: because they're against the death penalty. So instead of rotting
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: in a prison and being forgotten about.
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: You continue to be at least somewhat relevant.
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: So I'm not a huge I'm not a proponent at
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: all the current use of the death penalty. But philosophically,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: if you're Joe Biden and you're trying to make a
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: point about the death penalty, why would you only commute
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: thirty seven of the forty federal death row inmates? Thirty
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: seven of the forty. That doesn't make any sense, even in.
• 52:31
  Speaker 2: A democratic world.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: That doesn't make any sense until you find out that
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the three that he did not commute the sentences for
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: happened to be the three most well known, most infamous,
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: most notorious cases. So, in other words, Biden just commuted
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: the death sentences of all the non famous federal death
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: row inmates, which to me makes this way worse because
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: you're not standing on any sort of principle. You're just
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: basically saying, well, I'm against the death penalty. I don't
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: want Trump to get credit for putting these scumbags to death,
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: so I'm going to commute all the sentences of those
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: that I don't think are going to create too much
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: of a media backlash. Because if we did the three
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: that were most well known to the public and to
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: the media, That would create too large of a news
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: story and there might be some further damage done. Now,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: most of these, and not all of these thirty seven
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: whose death sentences were commuted, are absolutely horrific human beings
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: that did horrendous crimes, many against children, and should never,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: even from a philosophical standpoint, have their sentences commuted.
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: But they're not well known to the public.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: Felt okay doing this, But I mean the smoking gun
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: that this is totally bogus is the idea that if
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: you're going to do this based upon principled and philosophical grounds,
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: then you do forty for forty, you know, through thirty
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: seven out of forty, and leave out the three.
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: Most infamous, most well known cases. It couldn't be more obvious.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, the media, because it's Christmas time, isn't going
• 54:25
  Speaker 1: to focus any attention on this.
• 54:27
  Speaker 2: But even the average American.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: Can figure out that that doesn't make any goddamn sense. Now,
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: speaking of murderers who deserve to die and who actually
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: are eligible for the death penalty on the federal level,
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: Luigi Mangioni is back in the news because of a
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: perp walk that happened at the end of last week.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: He is eligible for the federal death penalty. He's being
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: charged both federally and in the state of New York
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: for the obvious murder on camera Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: Are absolutely horrific and horrendous crime where somehow, you know,
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: he has become a celebrity, he has now a cult following,
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: and you know, this purp walk I thought was incredibly stupid,
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: I mean New York City when he was extraded back
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: to New York City, pulled out all the stops and
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: it really did look like it was from a movie scene.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: And I was asked to go on Dan Abrams show
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: on News Nation to discuss this from a media perspective
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: as well as from the standpoint of what these visuals
• 55:41
  Speaker 1: were saying about the Luigi Mangione story and where it's
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: likely to go from here. And I was asked on
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: with a former LA not laped New York City Police
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: Department official, And what happened was that the NYPD guy,
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: NYPD guy named Bill Salmon, he was not really that
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: upset by this. He was willing to give the authorities
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: a pass because you know, this is a big media story.
• 56:13
  Speaker 2: They all want to take credit.
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: Eric Adams, the mayor, was standing in this brigade with
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: all these police officers from all these different jurisdictions, who
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: were you know, taking Luigi in his orange jumpsuit and
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: obviously in handcuffs, and they're they're walking him in front
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: of the crowds and the media and making a big
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: scene out of this. You know, Samon didn't really have
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: a problem with this, and I did.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: I had a big.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: Issue with this because I think this was sending exactly
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: the wrong message. I related that this really was from
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: a movie, but they were making him into the joker.
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: And I even made a parallel to Donald Trump and
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: how the media overplayed the persecution of Donald Trump. To
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: be clear, as I said on News Nation, I'm not
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: comparing Donald Trump to Luigi MANGIONI.
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: What I am comparing is the treatment of him and.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: How that elevates him in the eyes of his cult
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: like fan base. And I think it's a pretty darn
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: good and important comparison. So here's what happened on News
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: Nation late last week on the Dan Abrams Show, where
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: I objected to this idea and Dan had already prior
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: to the clip you're about to hear it basically, in
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: a much softer way, said similar things to what I
• 57:37
  Speaker 1: believe was going on here, And so that's the context
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: for this short clip from that appearance. I'm only going
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: to play a little bit over a minute of my
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: appearance because well, for a couple of reasons, the appearance
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: was too long to play on itself, but also this
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: is the only version that was placed onto YouTube where
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: I can get good audio from it. But this will
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: give you a good sense of what happened when I
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: went on News Nation last week to kind of debate
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: and a former NYPD police officer about the Luigi Luigi
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: Mangioni purp walk on News Nation at this whole thing.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: All right, Ziegler's shaking his head.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know what exactly which party shaking his head about,
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: but go ahead, John, I disagree with Bill, and I
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: would actually amplify your comments.
• 58:25
  Speaker 2: Dan.
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: I think this is a massive mistake. I think they
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: were making him literally into the joker. I kept looking
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: for Lady Gaga playing Harley Quinn behind Eric Adams at
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: any moment in this situation. Have we learned nothing from
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: the Donald Trump example of what happens when you elevate
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: a cult like leader because you go after him in
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: too big a way in an effort to try to
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: get justice. And I'm not comparing Trump to Luigi here.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: Luigi's obviously guilty of murder and deserves no sympathy whatsoever.
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: But he has a cult like following, and that cult like.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: Following is only going to be elevated because of That's
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: what happened today. And I am very concerned about what's
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: going to happen once they try to find a jury
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: that could possibly convict him, because we've already seen polling
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: data indicating that among younger people only a third, only
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: a third of younger people believe that it was totally inappropriate.
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: What Luigi Mangioni did.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: This is a very dangerous and serious situation.
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: And I don't like what happened today at all now,
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: to be clear.
• 59:26
  Speaker 1: And the second comment that I made, which we did
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: not play for you, I furthered the Donald Trump metaphor,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: because I said, it's a good thing that Luigi Mangioni
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: is not constitutionally eligible because based upon how the authorities
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: in the media are handling things like his purp walk
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: and the expansion of his cult like following.
• 59:49
  Speaker 2: He could be a favorite to.
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: Be the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in twenty twenty eight
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: if he was old enough. He's not old enough, he
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: won't be eligible for several more cycles. But you know,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: that's the bizarro world we're living in. And if you
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: think I'm exaggerating here, I don't think that I am.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, last week, we played a clip from Saturday
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 1: Night Live and Chris Rock joking about Luigi Mangioni and
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: how the New York City crowd at thirty Rockefeller Center
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: was clearly very supportive of what Mangioni had done to
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: the healthcare executive, which is absolutely bizarre and outrageous.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: I referenced in that clip.
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: You just heard that there was a poll done that
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: we talked about in this podcast and indicated that, especially
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 1: among young people, only about a third believe that what
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Mangioni did was totally unacceptable, which means two thirds believed
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: that it was at least somewhat acceptable. And if you
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: think it was somewhat acceptable, and you get on Mangioni's jury,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: there's a pretty darn good chance that you may hold
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: out for acquittal and create a hung jury situation, especially
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: in if the trial is in New York City, where
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: you would think, you know, the place where the crime
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: occurred might be, you know, some place that you wouldn't
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: get very much support.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: But it's been exactly the opposite.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: And for the second straight week, Saturday Night Live proved
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: to be you know, the place that is providing the
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: evidence that this Mangioni situation could become very O. J.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: Simpson like because during the weekend update, here was the
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: a joke that was intended to be made at Mangioni's expense,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: and just the mention of his name caused the crowd
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: there in New York City, not far from where this crime,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: this horrible assassination occurred. When Colin Jost, I think was
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: even surprised as he was doing this Luigi Mangioni bit,
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: the crowd was clearly supportive of Mangione to the point
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: where Yost had to actually acknowledge it.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: And here's what that sounded like on Saturday Night Live
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 2: on NBC.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 6: Luigi Mangione, Yeah, yeah, definitely woo you're wooing for justice, right?
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 6: Luigi Manzioni dropped his extradition fight and was flown from
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 6: Pennsylvania to New York to face multiple charges. In related news,
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 6: Bumble exploded.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, folks, this has all the markings of
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: a bad situation going on into the future now, you know,
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: because the charges against Mangioni are very complex and they're
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: both on the state, local, and federal levels. My guess
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: is this is going to be a very very long
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: time before he actually faces a trial and a jury,
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: and over time, I think.
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: His story will fade.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: But it's going to be a while because one of
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 1: the other things I said on News Nation was that,
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: you know, this is a story that is ready made
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: for cable news. He's a celebrity, and he's got a cult,
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: and the cult is going to tune in whenever he's
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: the subject, and we're going to see you know, a
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: lot of people invested in this story, both positively and negatively.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: So it's going to take a while. But this could
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: be years and years and years from now, you know,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: by the time Mangioni goes on trial. I'm trying to
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: be as optimistic as possible here, maybe people will have
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: tired of the story.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: You know, if it's a few years.
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: You know, maybe Mangioni doesn't have that boyish look about
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: him anymore. And you know, so there's all sorts of
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: things that can happen between now and a trial. But
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: I am very very concerned one about the practical part
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: of this, that what this is going to do to
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: the ability to convict Mangioni, but also what it says
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: about our society and our culture that might be even
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: more significant that so many people are openly coming to
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: Mangione's support publicly and making him into some sort of
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: a hero when he's obviously not. He's a spoiled, brat, loser, killer,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: assassin who killed an innocent man in cold blood, a
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: man with a family, a man who committed no crime,
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: a man there's not even any evidence did anything to
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: harm Mangioni or anybody close to Mangioni. I mean, it's
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: it's just lunacy what this jackass did. And the fact
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: that he's become a hero is one of the most
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: depressing stories of twenty twenty four, by the ways. Speaking
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: of depressing stories of twenty twenty four, Dan Abrams at
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: the end of that News Nation broadcast, I should mention
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: stunned me and that I would have been on the
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: inner circle here, but I'm sure everybody else was stunned
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: as well. In announcing that he will be leaving his
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: News Nation television show in the primetime hour of nine
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: o'clock early next year, I believe in February of next year,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: and I exchanged messages with Dan about this. I'm very
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: depressed for the state of cable news television because it's
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: a great show. It's by far the most substantive and
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: fair show on cable news, and you know, I'm proud
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: to actually go on that show a couple times a month,
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: and I generally enjoy it. Although it's kind of a
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: pain in the ass, it's become less of a pain
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: in the ass now that they've been sending I guess
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 1: you would call them live trucks to our house and
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: so I don't have to set up the studio myself,
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: and so that's improved the I think one the level
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: of production involved with my appearances on News Nation as
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: well as it's kind of lessened the aggravation element of it.
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: But you know, it doesn't really do anything for me
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: to go on News Nation. It's just something that is
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: occasionally fun. Dan and I have had great chemistry. Dan
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: indicated he thinks that they're going to continue to use
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: me after he's gone. But I don't see how that's
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: likely or even that big of a deal, because, like
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: I said, Dan and I have this weird chemistry where
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: we kind of get each other, we respect each other.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: That's very very rare, and he almost inherently without even asking,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, just to give you kind of a background
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: to the sausage making. Generally, when you are asked to
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: do these kinds of appearances on cable news television, the
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: producers will say, hey, are you available, you'll say yes
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: or no, and then you'll have a conversation to make
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: sure they understand where you're coming from so that they
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: can alert the host in this case Dan, or they
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: know who else to book on the show with you,
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: so that people aren't repeating themselves. I mean, they don't
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: necessarily need to have people disagreeing, but some level of
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: disagreement is at least more interesting than if everyone agrees.
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: And in my case, I don't know, I get in
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: one in trouble. I don't think this is something that
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: we get anyone in trouble, but I find it kind
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: of remarkable.
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 2: It's been many months.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: Since I've even had a conversation with a producer at
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: News Nation because the producers and Dan inherently know where
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: I'm going to come down on any particular topic because
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: we just know each other that well. And so Dan is,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: I know exactly how this works. Dan sees a story
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 1: he wants to do it, He's like, who do I
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: get for this?
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: Oh?
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: I know exactly where Zigler is going to come down
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: on this. That'll be interesting. Get Ziggler to see if
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: he can come on. And you know, it's with like
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 1: ninety five percent efficiency that they know exactly what I'm
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: going to say, where I'm going to come down. And
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: by the way, I'm not exactly the most predictable person
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: when it comes to my perspective on anything because partisan
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: interests have no impact on me. Maybe that's why it's
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: probably one wide Dan likes having me on, but also two,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: maybe that is why they're able to predict where On
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: going to come down on any particular topic. But that
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: is gone now that Dan's going to be leaving in February.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: So my guess is I will not be on Newstation
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: for very much longer, and certainly not to the extent
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: that I have been over the last several years, and
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 1: that may indirectly, indirectly may have an impact on where
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: I go from here with regard to this podcast and
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: my career in general. It's not going to have any
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: direct impact, but obviously more thoughts on that in our
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: last episode of the podcast, which will be coming out
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: next week just before the end of the year. We
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: are intending to keep the podcast going into next year,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: but we might be doing it a little bit differently,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: and we'll give you more information on that as it
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: becomes available. Like I said, probably in the next episode
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: of the podcast. But looking into twenty twenty five with
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: Dan Abrams leaving, one most important part is I think
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: that's bad for cable whose television because his show was
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: the best, and two it will almost certainly decrease the
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: number of times that I'm on television given commentary on
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: things like the Luisi Maggione case from a perspective that
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: I don't think anybody else really provides in this era
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: of cable news television. Thanks for listening to today's free
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: drop of the abbreviated show. If you're interested in listening
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: to the entire show. You must become a patron. Please
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: go to Patreon.
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: That's p A t R e o N dot com.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: Patreon dot com slash the Death of Journalism with John Ziggler.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: My name is jhn z I E G L e R.
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 1: That's hatreon dot com slash the Death of Journalism with
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: John Zigler.
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: Good luck to you on that.
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: But that's how you can subscribe USU