Latest / 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary / Trump Reverses Course on Livestreaming Fort Hood Shooter’s Execution

Transcript

Trump Reverses Course on Livestreaming Fort Hood Shooter’s Execution · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: to Greg Karambas of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: National Review.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Three martinis coming up. I hope that Greg Karambas is
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: having a martini somewhere right now.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: I hope he is. He is on vacation.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: I am Craig Colonese filling in. Jim Garrity is here,
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: of course, as always. and lots and lots of things
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: to talk about. The head of mind for me is
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: that we might avoid a controversy in one of the
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: topics we're.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: About to discuss, which seems good.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Like, even if you're on one side or a different
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: side of the debate of this specific topic, a non-controversial
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: thing occurring right now seems better than a controversial thing happening.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: And so that's my take on it. But our good
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: story involves the big headline that there was going to
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: be a live-streamed execution of of the Fort Hood shooter,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: horrible person, and a person that veterans, I think, are
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: uniquely upset with because he's one of them and he
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: attacked and killed them. And so I had veterans calling
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: into my show in Houston saying how thrilled they were
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: that this was going to be live streamed. It was
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: a public execution by live fire. And now it probably
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: will not be happening. So we're going to call this
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: a good story, mostly because, you know, killing somebody on
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: television or at least on live stream is probably not
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: good for our society if we're going to go that road.
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: Jim, what do you want to say about this?
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Well, I was going to say, until this was announced
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: by the president earlier this morning that it's not going
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: to happen, the only good news was that I got
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: to do the headline over at National Review, the execution
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: Well, but then I.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Had to add probably, and it turns out that that
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: is indeed the case. Look, put me down as fully
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: supportive of the execution. But there was a part of
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: me that just from the very beginning this was announced
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: felt like this could play very, very badly. Nadal Hassan
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: has been in a wheelchair. Now, he's in that wheelchair
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: because of what he did. But as they say, the
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: optics of an American military firing squad shooting a guy
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: in a wheelchair, televising that out to the world was
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: not going to play well. Arab world, Muslim world. Anywhere
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: in the world. Whether or not people think the death
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: penalty is correct, I think in the egregious cases like
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: this one, it is perfectly fitting. There's not necessarily the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: idea of do you want to turn it into a spectacle?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Do you want to turn it into something that people
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: sit down and watch? It all felt a little too,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: because he's in a wheelchair, Craig, he couldn't be the
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: running man from Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. But just the observation,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that was meant to be this twisted, dystopian future where
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: executions were seen as entertainment and you know like the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: other thing is is that look what does what does
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: al-qaeda do what does isis do well they televise their
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: executions they behead people and they're screaming you know alu
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: akbar and and all that kind of stuff and i
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: kind of felt like what we were going to do
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: here like it's the good news is pete hegseth was
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: not going to behead him and scream god is great
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: and that's why we're nothing like our enemies and Right.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't as different as you'd like it to be.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: So I think they came to the right decision on this.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: The execution will go forward. And I don't I think
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: there's much less objection to that. I just think, you know,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: I guess there's, you know, a bitter aftertaste to this
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: is that how did this idea get off the drawing board,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: so to speak? It kind of feels like a self-inflicted controversy. Well.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: But I'm listening.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll tell you that from my point of view,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: I think that there's this desire to demonstrate toughness. Like
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: we want to be tougher and we don't like how
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: weak the other side is. So we're going to be tough.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And so some sort of the genesis of this idea
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: also comes from a military form of thinking. I do
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: a segment every Friday on my radio show. I call
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: it Veteran Voices. I talk to one veteran every week
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: and they're fine with it. A lot of veterans are
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: actually excited about it, but we're not all from the
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: same you know, a life experience, whatever you want to
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: call that group. And so I did think that for
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: the masses, this was generally a bad idea. It's not
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: like we're not going to execute the guy. We're not
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: going to punish him for the horrible crime. We're just
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: not going to put it in a place where anybody
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: can watch it that's not even remotely connected to it.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: And so to me, it just seemed like a thing
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: that you were doing to placate maybe some very loud
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: but very small group of voices that would like us
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: to seem tougher in a way that actually, as you
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: just said, makes us look a lot more like the
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: people we fight, not like the people we are.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, he's dead either way when this process
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: is done. Right. One last wrinkle that I feel like
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: really got overlooked in a lot of this, the U.S.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Army has regulations for how they carry out executions. Among
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: those regulations, they have witnesses traditionally, and I think it's
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: good to have public witnesses. If the, as the president said,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: members of the victim's families want to attend, they can
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: be there. If Hassan's family wishes to attend, they are
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: allowed to attend. But it also says that no person
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: under the age of 18 shall witness the execution for
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: obvious reasons. I think we don't want kids watching this.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: If you live stream it, How do you know that
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: people watching aren't under age 18? And, you know, people
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: are pointing out, oh, but they could waive that regulation. Sure,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: they could. But then you have to do it. You
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: can't just ignore it. This avoids that issue. Nothing has
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to be changed. And everything will hopefully turn out.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: I like the things about our society that reflect our morality,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: that reflect our beliefs. And I think one of those
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: things was probably not publicly sharing via live stream the
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: killing of anyone.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Speaking of our society and our morals and our
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: values and what we stand for, if you could reach
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: a scared pregnant woman before the abortion industry did, would
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: you choose to do that? What if in the exact
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: moment that she was searching online for answers, you could
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: be the person who showed her compassion, support, and another option? Well,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: that's exactly what Human Coalition does. Human Coalition has already
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: helped more than 35,000 women choose life, but there are
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: still more than 1 million mothers out there who have
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: not been reached, 1 million mothers who are searching for answers,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: 1 million opportunities to intervene, and 1 million lives hanging
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: in the balance. It only takes a monthly donation of
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: $ 26 to create a life-saving moment where the mother receives
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: support instead of pressure. You can help be her lifeline.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Create a life-saving moment. Go to humancoalition.org slash martini. That
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: is humancoalition.org slash martini and give today.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Now we go on to our next martini and we
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: continue to follow the money and the money is not
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: telling a very good story at all. It seems on
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: either side of the equation for Republicans, both where they're
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: choosing to spend. And of course, where they're then choosing
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: not to spend. Uh, how do we look at this one, Jim?
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Sure. We talked, uh, earlier about the amount of money
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: that the Republicans are spending in your home state of
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Texas and the Senate race. There's also a question of like,
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: where are they not spending their money? And I think
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: it's a, you know, rather glaring sign. The, um, Congressional
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Leadership Fund is the leading House Republican super PAC. This
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: is where a lot of the donations go through. Last week,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: they basically gave up on Nebraska's district of Republican Representative
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: Don Bacon is retiring. This is around Omaha. Real swing district.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And I guess they're just saying, we don't have the resources.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: We can't afford to compete there anymore, even though they
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: have a ton of money. They decided to cancel all
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: remaining advertising booked for Congressman Tom Keene Jr. in New Jersey,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Representative Marionette Miller-Meeks of Iowa. Look, when you stop helping
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: your incumbents, that's what it is. One thing to say, ah,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: you know, most of these committees are incumbent protection institutions.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: That is job one. You get elected, we'll have your
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: back forever. Well, now they're saying we can't afford it.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: And it's kind of like, is it impossible for Tom
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Keene to win or Marionette Miller Meeks to win? No,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: but this is the handwriting on the wall. This is
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: a sign of that. Tom Keene Jr. 's chances to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: win are disappearing. Much like the congressman for a couple
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: months there, which probably is one of the reasons he's
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: in trouble.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: Well done.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Thank you. So, again, you know, are the Republicans skepticism
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: in the polls? Sure. Like poll response rates are low.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: There's a chance there's a hidden Republican, hidden Trump vote
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: out there. But these institutions that have access to more
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: than just the public polling, they're doing focus groups. They
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: got all kinds of responses. they're making these decisions and
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: certainly points to a, if not a blue wave, they
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: just can't defend a bunch of seats you would expect
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: them to defend in a regular midterm cycle.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I was thinking a lot about a call
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: I got today on my show in Houston, and they
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: were blaming the Republican Party for not giving more money
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: to Ken Paxton earlier on in this race. And I
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: actually made the objection that I think would be a
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: pretty core component to this is they shouldn't have had to.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: They shouldn't have been flooding money into Texas because it's
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: not usually a place you need money to go. And
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: to be fair, when you look at the specifics, Paxson
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: did a terrible job of raising money, which is its
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: own thing. But when I think we're talking about this now,
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: what we're seeing is the entire party reevaluate where its
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: money needs to go in the last couple weeks because
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: they failed in places they never expected failure, and they
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: have no chance of success in places that they thought
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: maybe we'd have a shot. That tells you more of
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: the story than any polling data ever will about how
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: likely it is that this party believes they're screwed.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: And I feel like as part of it, we're screwed. Sorry,
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: go ahead.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: The outside groups, Republican-leaning ones, something like 230 million in
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Texas to help out Paxton. Now, it's a big state,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of media markets, a lot of media markets
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: that are fairly high. There are factors that kind of
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: play into that. But again, it's Texas. Usually Republicans win statewide,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: every statewide race for like, since 94, I want to say.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: You're right, 94. So, you know, Pete Ricketts, Nebraska is
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: not usually a competitive race. Pete Ricketts is, I think
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: they have the Senate Leadership Fund is spending 50%.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Million.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: You know, is that am I that worried about him? No,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: it's you know, but like they didn't think you have
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: to spend that money to defend this guy. So seems
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: like a leading indicator of where the momentum is right now.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: And on that super uplifting transition to the last topic
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: of the day, we'll go to the craziest of the martinis.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: And I love the way you wrote this.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I didn't think it's the particularly big that new White
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: House press secretary did a terrible job, but she also
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: didn't take the bar exam. But it's becoming a spiral, right?
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: She had a horrible debut by any stretch of anyone's
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: anyone's way to judge it. And now they're digging up
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: more demonstrations that the brand new White House press secretary
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: is maybe not as good.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: On paper, as she might have sounded before, too.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: I don't know where we go from here, but I'm
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: not surprised that we're digging deeper into her background.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I don't spend a ton of time focusing on the
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: ups and downs of any White House press secretary. Sure.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I think Karine Jean-Pierre probably was the absolute bottom of it.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: But by and large, particularly in a presidency where President
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Trump speaks to the media so often, I feel like
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the role of White House press secretary is a lesser...
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: less consequential role than it usually is compared to like
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: when joe biden just wasn't saying anything and whatever john
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: pierre was saying um but with that said but so
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: there's been this whole thing about she said she was
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: an attorney she was described as an attorney where did
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: she pass the bar and she said in china when
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: she was asked about this now that's a little strange
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: uh because as far as everybody can understand the law
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: in china if you're a foreign citizen you can't take
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the bar, nevermind pass it. So now what we do
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: know is that she did work for a law firm
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: out there, Zhang Lun, I hope I pronounced that correctly,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: from August 2011 to 2013. Now by itself, I don't
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: care that much about whether she was a lawyer, but
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: not an attorney or vice versa. A lot of people
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: use the terms interchangeably and people say, well, if you're
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: not practicing, you're not, like, I don't care that much
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: about that. I think that's kind of a tempest in
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: a teapot. What I do think is kind of weird
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: is that she did this work, and I looked up
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: this firm. I wrote about this in the National Review
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Corner today. Zhonglun, one of the biggest and most well-connected
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: law firms in China, one of their clients is the
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: Justice Ministry of China in Beijing. This is like, you
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: know when we say China is a police state? This
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: is the police in the police state. They harass human
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: rights activists. It's every bit the bad guys. Now, I
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: don't know that she did any work that related to
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: this client. we don't know much of anything about what
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: she did for this. But we do know that in
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: this firm, first of all, everybody at the firm is
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: either a member of the Chinese Communist Party or takes
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: an oath of loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party. And
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: in 2009, before she started working there, the firm established its, quote,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Communist Party of China Beijing Committee General Party Branch Committee.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: That's a lot of committees. That's a lot of committees, yeah.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: So for the short version, this firm is very tied
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: in with the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese state.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Does this mean she did anything unethical?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: We don't know.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: We don't know anything specific about this. I think it'd
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: be nice if she talked a bit about what she
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: did and what kind of work she was doing. Just
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: let us know. We don't know anything about this. And
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: I just want to point out, if a Democratic White
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: House had a press secretary... that worked for a Chinese
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: law firm in Beijing for three years with the justice
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: ministry as a client.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: We'd talk about it.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, Alex Jones, uh, you know, Trump himself.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I like Glenn Beck, but you know, Dinesh D'Souza, like
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: this would be a huge deal on the right. And
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: because she's in the Trump white house, I think a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: lot of people are just like, no, no big deal.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: I I'd like to know what she was doing just
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: because also like, you know, white house press secretary, you're
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: not handling like a ton of classified information. But you
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: know the president's schedule. You're around the president a lot.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: You're in the White House. I figure she had to
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: go through some sort of background check, and because she's
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: in this job, I'm assuming she passed it? Yeah.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Well, we should say there aren't really any rules to
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: be a White House press secretary, first and foremost. So
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: she could get appointed without any of the qualifications she
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: claimed to have.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: It's not great to lie about them, but I don't know.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: To me, when you talk about this, I will use,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: and this will get me canceled, Jim, the hot lady
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: defense that maybe she just took a job that somebody
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: offered her as a hot lady, and she did the
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: job for three years.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Again, I might get fired for saying this.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Once again, everyone, that is Craig Pelignese, who's doing this.
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: Maybe she didn't really know what she was working on.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: I'm going to.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Make an observation. One of my wife's friends, this is
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: like 20 years ago, very attractive blonde woman, I think
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: very highly of this person. She comes in, we've grown
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: a happy hour after work on some Friday night. She
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: comes in and she's, God, everyone in this bar is
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: so friendly. And we kind of look at each other,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: including my male buddies, and we're like, no, they're not.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: They're friendly to you because you're a hot blonde. People
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: like to be nice to attractive people. When you are attractive,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: all kinds of doors and opportunities open because people like
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: being around you because they like looking at you. You are,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: as they say, easy on the eyes. Now, she undoubtedly,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: like she was there for like two years.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: So it's not like she was just like answering phones.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: She presumably was doing some real and useful work there.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: Fair enough.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: But if she had done the same thing for a
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: law firm in France, I don't think we'd be having
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: the same issue. No, you're right. Like, you know, Canada,
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: you know, like if you're working for a law firm
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: in Beijing, China, That just raises some eyebrows. I think
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: it'd be good for the White House to put out
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: some more information about this, just to illuminate some things.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Well, you nailed exactly my point, because I was also
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: thinking about a friend of mine who like anywhere we'd go,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: she'd get something for free.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: And she's like, why do people always give me free stuff?
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, I don't know. Maybe it's because you're
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: a really hot lady.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it just, yeah.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: Early voting.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: 5.2 million ballots already cast. How early is too early
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: is the question in our chaser. I think that you're
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: going to have a pretty good answer to this, Jim.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I will tell you, though, up front, I'm a day
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: of voter. I like voting on Election Day. Big fan.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Wish more people did it.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Go ahead. Most years, that's what I do. Occasionally, I've
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: been traveling on Election Day, sometimes for coverage or other stuff.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: So I'm like, OK, I'll do it ahead of time.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Here in Virginia, we started early voting, I believe, September 19th.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I think that's way too early. I
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: think October 1st seems like at minimum that they're really,
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: she should be doing it. I think right around now,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: October 15th, mid-October, you know, like two weeks strikes me
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: as plenty of time. You've seen a lot of states
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: where like, you know, Republicans change the rules to go
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: from like, you know, six weeks of early voting to four.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: And the Democratic message is they're destroying democracy. No, no,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: you're going to be fine with a couple weeks of
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: early voting and stuff like that. I also, my theory
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: on why, like it's a bunch of states, it's definitely higher,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: including my home state of Virginia. Yeah. I believe in Georgia,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: they set a record for first day of voting, things
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: like that. I wonder if people just get sick of
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: attack ads and they get sick of the campaign and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: they're like, I want to go, I want to vote.
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: And then I don't, you know, nobody, anybody who's nagging
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: me for money, anybody knocking on my door, I've already voted,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: go away, leave me alone. But it does, I do
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: think it's interesting to see that even, you know, if
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: I'm a Republican, I'm a little bit nervous that people
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: are really itching to go out to vote. Now those
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: are presumably the most motivated people Probably more Democrats than
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Republicans right now, but we'll see how it shakes out.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think the best way to say it
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: is someone who's going to use an early voting opportunity six,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: seven weeks before an election is going to show up
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: four weeks as well. If you're going to go that
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: early to vote, you're probably also going to do it
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: if we restrict it a little bit more. Because I'm
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: not going to be there for a while.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Go ahead.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: You know how people used to camp out for Star
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: Wars tickets? Yeah. It had to be a first in line.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Somebody went to a Wegmans or something. Some people love
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: being firsts. I don't really care. But so vote whenever
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: you want to vote. But obviously, the early vote already
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: pretty darn high. Yeah. Well, here we are in October.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Luckily, it's not happening yet in Texas. I think we
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: have four more days till our early voting starts here.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: Cool.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: Well, it's fun, as always, to hang out with you, Jim.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: I like doing it.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: I think I might have got us canceled or at
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: least myself one last time. Those opinions were mine and
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: mine alone. And after Friday, I'm probably not going to
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: be back on the three martinis if you hear too
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: many hate letters about me.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Listen to us and listen to Craig while you still can.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: I'll see you tomorrow, Craig.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: See you tomorrow.